Indigenous Flowers of the Hawaiian Islands: Forty-Four Plates Painted in Water-Colours and Described by Mrs. Francis Sinclair, Jr. (1885)

Item Details

London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1885, Hardcover

1st edition, Very Good

London, Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1885. First edition, Folio. 44 chromo-lithographed plates after Sinclair by Leighton Brothers.

 

Light spotting to title-page, original gilt embossed green pictorial cloth , all edges gilt, corners bumped, front hinge cracked, some damage to spine, binding tight (see photos), light rubbing along joints with some darkening or spotting to upper cover near spine.

In the preface, the author states: "The following collection of flowers was made upon the islands of Kauai and Niihau, the most northern of the Hawaiian archipelago. It is not by any means a large collection, considering that the flowering plants of the islands are said by naturalists to exceed four hundred varieties. But this enumeration was made some years ago, and it is probable that many plants have become extinct since then."

from WIKIPEDIA:

In Hawaii, Sinclair produced her most notable work Indigenous flowers of the Hawaiian islands. This was the first book published with color images of Hawaiian flowering plants.

After her marriage, Sinclair lived with her husband in Kiekie on the island of Nii'hau and later in Makaweli on the island of Kauai.[10] She explored Niihau, Waimea Valley, Olokele Valley, Kokeʻe and other locations, painting the native flora there and researching information about those species from Native Hawaiians. She collected specimens of each native flowering plant and illustrated each one, creating a portfolio of 44 full-page color plates. She sent the specimens to Joseph Dalton Hooker, then director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, England, for scientific identification. Dr. Hooker provided her with each flower's botanical name, which she documented along with the Hawaiian names, natural habitats and blossoming seasons of each species.

In 1885, with the encouragement of Hooker, Sinclair published Indigenous Flowers of the Hawaiian Islands. She dedicated the volume: “To the Hawaiian Chiefs and People who have been most appreciative friends, and most lenient critics, this work is affectionately inscribed.”

Isabella was among the first authors to express concern about the loss of native habitats on Hawaiian flora due to land development and competition from invasive species:

"The Hawaiian flora seems to grow in an easy, careless way," she wrote, "which, though pleasingly artistic, and well adapted to what may be termed the natural state of the islands, will not long survive the invasions of foreign plants and changed conditions. Forest fires, animals and agriculture, have so changed the islands, within the last fifty or sixty years, that one can now travel for miles . . . without finding a single indigenous plant; the ground being wholly taken possession of by weeds, shrubs and grasses, imported from various countries.”

Don R. Severson, Michael D. Horikawa and Jennifer Saville in: "Finding Paradise: Island Art in Private Collections", Honolulu, 2002, p. 178: "Published in the form of a typical Victorian 'floral album,' Isabella Sinclair's series of watercolours was by far the most luxurious guide to Hawaiian flora to have been published up to that time".