AN ACCOUNT OF SAFFRON:
The Manner of its Culture and saving for Use, WITH THE ADVANTAGES It will be of to this KINGDOM. (a single horizontal line) Published by Order of the DUBLIN SOCIETY. (a single horizontal line) DUBLIN: Printed by A. Rhames, Printer to the Dub-lin Society. M.DCC.XXXII.
FIRST EDITION:. 200 x105 mm. Inside covers in marbled-paper. 2 feps. [1] Frontispiece. An engraving of the saffron flower (crocus), its bud, and the bulb. Title page. [1] (1)3-14. 1 full leaf of advertisements. 2 feps. Modern retrospective panelled calf, raised bands, spine panels with gilt ornament, red morocco label. An extremely fine copy.
- This rare little account promoting the cultivation of the saffron crocus in England and Ireland seems to be the first separately published work in English entirely devoted to saffron. It is a condensed version of a paper Dr. James Douglas published in "Philosophical Transactions" in 1728, with added notes at the end by an Irish writer who claims that saffron grown in Ireland "is superior in every quality to that grown in other countries." Scottish physician James Douglas (1675-1742) studied at the University of Edinburgh and received his medical degree at Rheims before establishing an obstetrics practice in London, where his patients included Queen Caroline. In addition to writings on anatomy and midwifery that are still referenced today, Douglas, a keen gardener, also delved into botany, penning works on the Guernsey lily, the coffee plant, and ipecacuanha, the plant from which medicinal ipecac derives. The present work is based on his studies of saffron farming in the town of Saffron Walden in Essex, a major producer of the spice in the Middle Ages, when it was widely used in medicines to combat the plague. The present title is rare in the marketplace; we could trace just two copies recorded at auction by ABPC and RBH--the Crahan copy, which sold twice in the mid-1980s. Also a copy that sold at Bloomsbury in 2011. Henrey II, 206; ESTC T86873. Hunt 488; who notes that works such as this, that promoted industries or crops were common in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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ref number:
11351