A Treatise on the Insect Enemies of Fruit and Fruit Trees. With numerous illustrations drawn from nature by Hockstein, under the immediate supervision of the author.
New York: William Wood & Company, 1865. 4to. 290 x 225 mm. (11 1/2 x 9 inches). [ix]-xvii, [19]-139 pp. (collates per the copy at Princeton). 11 full-page lithographic plates, 9 of which are printed in colored. Publisher's green cloth, title gilt on upper board and in blind on lower cover; joints cracked but expertly repaired, corners and edges bumped, and the green cloth is faded in some places; preliminary leaves foxed as are the tissue guards, otherwise quite a clean copy.
First Edition. Isaac Trimble was chief entomologist for the State Agricultural Society of New Jersey and well as a member of the Horticultural Association of the America Institute. His book was a practical manual for the preservation of fruit trees and was directed at the numerous fruit farmers of this country. His text discusses the recent literature on the destruction of fruit and fruit trees by insects and attempts to provide an observational element to the discussion so farmers, not interested in the science can observe infestation and do something about it before infection occurs.
The plates in the book, drawn by the New York City artist A. Hochstein, complements Trible text with beautifully printed color plates that demonstrate the devastation that insects do to fruit.
Hochstein was a specialist in drawing and painting flowers, fruits, and insects and worked with a number of publishers producing illustrations for horticultural texts. The plates in this book are unsigned by were probably executed by R. Craighead, a printer on Centre Street in New York City.
Bennett, p. 106. See also Volume 15, page 10 of The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste (1860) for an advertisement featuring the work of Hochstein. (357). Item #357
Price: $500.00