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  • A GREAT FLOWER BOOK AT CHRISTIE’S DURING CHELSEA SHOW

    flowersA piece often referred to as the great flower book will go on display at Christie’s, King St., London from May 21-25 to coincide with the Chelsea Flower Show.  The Hortus Eystettensis by Basilius Besler published in 1613 will come up at Christie’s sale of Valuable Printed Books and Manuscripts in London on July 13.  The 400 year old work is an unrecorded first edition.

    It is a pictorial record of the flowers grown in the greatest German garden of its time, that of the Prince Bishop of Eichstatt, Johann Conrad von Gemmingem.  By 1611 there were eight separate gardens surrounding the castle, each staffed with its own gardeners and each filled with flowers from a different country.  The garden still exists today, though in a much smaller version.  The book, with 366 plates depicting over 1,000 flowers, is estimated at £800,000-1.2 million.

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