The Herefordshire Pomona, containing figures and descriptions of the most esteemed kinds of Apples and Pears, Volume 2 only with 77 fine chromolithographs colored from Nature by Miss Ellis and Miss Bull

Pp. 453 (un-numbered), 77 full-page fine chromolithographed plates from watercolors by Edith E. Bull, Alice B. Ellis and W.G. Smith, lithographed by G. Severeyns of Brussels, 380 line-drawings of fruit in cross-section as text-figures.  Contemporary full dark green pebble cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine, original salmon-colored endpapers, thick folio (14.75 x 12 inches; 375 x 300 mm).  The binding is by Evans and Mackie of Worcester with the publisher’s sticker on bottom outer corner of rear endpaper.  This work was published under the auspices of the Woolhope Naturalist’s Field Club; it is one of the finest fruit books ever published illustrating 432 different varieties of apples and pears.  The Pomona was issued in seven parts and sold by subscription; only 600 copies were printed.  Offered here is volume 2 only.  Volume 1 contains about 221 pages of text, one portrait and 3 uncolored plates.  All 77 of the fine chromolithograph plates and accompanying text is found in volume 2.  This work was initiated to restore Herefordshire to its fruit-growing supremacy by drawing the attention of growers to the best varieties of fruit available (Sotheby’s Magnificent Botanical Books, pg. 49).  This volume is a classic of late Victorian natural history.  It is the most comprehensive study of the apples and pears grown in England ever published.  The Herefordshire orchards have long been known to possess a wide variety of apples and pears.  To document this diversity, the Pomona Committee of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club in Hereford made a detailed compilation of apple and pear varieties over a ten year period in the 1860s and early 1870s.  This resulted in this comprehensive volume financed by subscription by the nobility and gentry of Herefordshire.  Its publication led to the restocking of numerous British orchards with lost varieties of apples and pears.  See also Great Flower Books, 1700-1900 (1990), p. 110 and Stafleu and Cowan, 2927.  No ownership marks.