Paris, Librairie Renouard (Henri Laurens, éditeur), [ND; ca. 1890-1895]. Folio (40.0 x 30.0 cm). Title page, index; twenty finely chromolithographed plates. Half cloth portfolio. Front board with embossed title and vignette, and mounted chromolithographed illustration.

Illustrated by the Belgian-French painter, sculptor, and illustrator Gustave Fraipont (1849-1923). Fraipont designed posters and illustrated many works published between 1882 and 1912 or slightly later. He was professor of drawing at the Maison d'Éducation de la Légion d'Honneur. "He contributed to many newspapers and magazines, such as French and Paris Courier. In 1905, he was appointed Navy painter. During World War I, he produced several compositions for the newspaper L'Illustration" (Wikipedia). The present work is not dated. External sources place it between 1888 and 1904 (sudoc website). On stylistic grounds, we think that it dates from the last decade of the 19th century. The plates are divided in five groups of four, viz., Fleurs grimpantes, Fleurs de parterres, Fleurs des haies, Fleures cultivés, and Fleurs sauvages. The French names of the flowers are added in pencil in an old hand below the illustrations. A few smudges on the front board; fore edges of plates a bit soiled, otherwise a very good, complete, and clean copy. Rare. We found only two auction records. Bénézit 4, p. 42. Neither in Evers, Ornamentale Vorlagenwerke, nor in Schneider-Henn, Ornament und Dekoration.