GARDEN ORNAMENT

First edition, first printing. Folio. Original blue cloth with gilt titles to the spine and upper board. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Generously illustrated with a tissue-guarded colour frontispiece, and black and white photographs of garden architecture and design throughout. A better than very good copy, the binding square and firm, the bottom corners lightly bumped, the extremities a little rubbed, the head of the spine with a small nick. The frontispiece mount is a little spotted and has some offsetting from the tissue guard, the contents are otherwise clean throughout and without stamps or inscriptions. Scarce in this condition.

A beautiful book on garden ornament by the influential garden designer, photographer and writer Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932). Including sections on gateways, steps and balustrades, urns and vases, paved courts and garden seats, loggias, orangeries, garden houses and dovecotes, parterres, sundials, topiary, pergolas, water gardens, bridges, fountains and wells, flower borders, wall gardening and Japanese gardens. Jekyll provides a general introduction as well as a short introduction to each section. The striking photographs primarily feature the grounds of British country houses as well a small selection of European and Japanese gardens.