#Early #English #viticulture #work #toast #auction #Antique #Collecting
One of the earliest works on English viticulture has sold for a total of £11,000 at Chiswick Auctions in London recently.
The specialist Books and Works on Paper sale included one of the few surviving copies of The English Vineyard Vindicated, by John Evelyn and John Rose. Published in 1666, it is thought that most copies perished in The Great Fire of London of the same year. This rare survivor has an ink correction that is made in Evelyn’s own hand.
Among the many subjects John Evelyn (1620- 1706) wrote about, horticulture became an increasing obsession. He published several translations of French gardening books, and his Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest Trees (1664) was highly influential in its plea to landowners to plant trees, of which he believed the country to be dangerously short.
