hand-coloured frontispiece

First and only edition of this uncommon flower arranging guide published for a domestic audience. Worldcat locates only seven institutional copies.

Author Elizabeth Ann Maling (1829-1866) was the daughter of a naval officer whose first wife had been Harriet Darwin, sister of Charles. 'Maling was a noted horticulturalist and she wrote several books on gardening, flower arranging, and birdkeeping. In addition, she wrote the single work of fiction, Cragstone Cottage: or, Life in the Country (1862)' (At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901).

The contents of the present volume cover choice of colours, which flower types are suitable for which purposes, seasonal considerations, and types of arrangements, including wreaths, bouquets, dinner table and drawing-room arrangements, hanging baskets, and floral pavements.

First edition; 8vo; hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, single engraving within the text, single leaf of publisher's ads at rear, contemporary ownership signatures to the title and front free endpaper, bookseller's ticket for Patton & Richie of Edinburgh to the front pastedown, occasional small marks in the text; original purple cloth blocked in gilt and blind with a floral arrangement design to the upper board, yellow coated endpapers, publisher's ads to pastedowns, cloth rubbed with some wear at the extremities, spine tanned, some pale markings and spots to the cloth, hinges cracked but firm, very good condition; 142pp.