The Town Garden : a Manual for the Management of City and Suburban Gardens

Groombridge & Sons, 5, Paternoster Row, 1855. Original Cloth. Fine-. Scarce First Edition of Hibberd's first book, with extensive tables of annuals and perennials. Foolscap 8vo (142 x 91mm): 172,20pp. Publisher's olive-green pebbled grain cloth paneled in blind and lettered and decorated with vine motif in gilt. Handsome bookseller's and binder's tickets to front (Fry, Chelmsford) and rear (Bound by Westley's, London) paste-downs. An excellent example (spine lightened a degree or two), tightly bound in original cloth and virtually pristine throughout. James Shirley Hibberd was one of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the Victorian era; The Town Garden was his first book. "Sensing a market among the advice books and gardening manuals of the era, Hibberd followed up with the very successful Rustic Adornments (1856) and Garden Favourites (1858). In 1858 he became the first editor of the newly established magazine Floral World. . . . In Stoke Newington he created one garden for fruit, another for vegetables, another for roses, and so on. Eventually lack of space encouraged him to move to 74 The Hermitage, a private road in Muswell Hill." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).