{"product_id":"bosqui-grapes-and-grape-vines-1877","title":"Grapes And Grape Vines Of California","description":"\u003cp\u003eGrapes and Grape Vines of California\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1980 (1877)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1] f.e., pp. xi, [18] leaves, [1] r.e., [10] plates\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSan Francisco John Windle Publishing Co. (Edward Bosqui \u0026amp; Co.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublisher's deluxe deep red quarter morocco over cloth boards, gilt-lettered and decorated spine, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, preserved in the original matching slipcase. Unbound text and plate leaves clean and supple throughout, without any foxing or toning. Vivid plates. An excellent copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLimited-edition facsimile (no. 141 of 300) of the impossibly rare volume representing the first color illustrations of California grape varieties published in the state, produced in the great tradition of the San Francisco printing industry and, above all, the first organized effort to describe California vines in the technical language of European ampelography. Originally issued in 1877 by Edward Bosqui \u0026amp; Co. in parts to subscribers, the work was commissioned by the California State Vinicultural Society to document the state's rapidly expanding vineyards, with the varietal descriptions widely attributed to the pioneering viticulturist Arpad Haraszthy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAppearing at the moment when California sought to establish itself alongside the great wine regions of Europe, it applied the rigorous descriptive methods of French and German ampelography to local grape varieties while showcasing the remarkable capabilities of San Francisco's lithographic industry. The printing itself was an extraordinary technical achievement: the plate of Johannisberg Riessling alone required twenty-eight separate lithographic stones, and the work received international recognition at the 1878 Paris Exposition. The original edition comprised only 65 sets, the lithographic stones being destroyed after printing; Bosqui's remaining stock was later lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Today only fourteen copies are known to survive, of which just six are complete. In 1980, San Francisco bookseller John Windle produced a facsimile from the copy preserved at the Lilly Library.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe colophon announces an edition of 310 copies, and these facsimiles have themselves become increasingly scarce on the market. The present copy is no. 141. The original work and the history of its facsimile reproductions were selected as no. 34 in the Zamorano Select list of 2010, recognizing 120 works that characterize California's culture and history between 1870 and 1980. The volume opens with Kevin Starr's introduction before reproducing the original preface, which presents the work as California's answer to the great French and German ampelographies of Victor Rendu and the Rhenish academies. Rather than merely borrowing European classifications, the authors set out to prove that California possessed a viticulture worthy of scientific description in its own right. The varietal accounts, attributed to Arpad Haraszthy, follow a rigorous botanical sequence (cane, bark, internodes, leaf, petiole, tendril, cluster, berry, and place of cultivation) transforming vineyard observation into standardized ampelographic description. The ten superb oleographic plates, after Hannah Millard's watercolours, and printed by Wm. Harring, depict the Mission Grape, Emperor, Flame Tokay, Johannisberg Riessling (sic), Zinfandel, Catawba, Rose Chasselas, White Muscat of Alexandria, Black Hamburgh, and Sultana. Beyond their visual beauty, they preserve a remarkable snapshot of California viticulture while its identity was still being formed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNames, origins, and classifications remained unsettled: Flame Tokay is carefully distinguished from the Hungarian wine grape, while Sultana is traced from Persia and Afghanistan through its introduction by the United States Patent Office under the Oriental name Kishmish. Even familiar varieties appear almost as new discoveries. Zinfandel, for example, is anatomized with the precision of a botanistc- its thin, fragile skin and sub-acid, very juicy pulp described not for romance but for identification - capturing the moment when California's vineyards first entered the language of modern scientific viticulture. Sometimes preserving the past is as important as discovering it. This handsome limited facsimile rescues one of California's greatest wine books from near extinction, allowing collectors to enjoy a landmark of American viticulture without needing one of the fourteen surviving originals. Proof that the finest way to safeguard history is occasionally to print it again, and to do so beautifully.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Fenice Antiquaria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49048644157675,"sku":"180-1980 (1877)--2500-1250-2026","price":2404.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0766\/2000\/5611\/files\/00180_IMG_9641.jpg?v=1784007838","url":"https:\/\/fenicebooks.com\/en-eu\/products\/bosqui-grapes-and-grape-vines-1877","provider":"La Fenice Antiquaria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}