Alphonse Mas / A. Lefèvre - Le Verger - 1865-1874

MAS, Alphonse — Le Verger — 1866
Bound collection of issues of this important pomological publication directed by Alphonse Mas (1817-1875). This exemplar gathers several issues and notices devoted to different categories of fruits.
The volume contains 168 pages of text and 52 full-page color chromolithographic plates, representing a total of 89 fruit varieties, each accompanied by its descriptive notice.
The varieties depicted and described include notably:
Pears: Beurré Bretonneau; Doyenné d’Alençon; Rousselet d’hiver; Tavernier de Boulogne; Alexandre Bivort; Beurré Clairgeau; Échassery; Doyenné d’hiver; Oken; Besi de Chaumontel; Louise Bonne; Jaminette; Blecker’s Meadow; Arbre Courbé; Bergamotte d’automne; Urbaniste Seedling; Rousselet Decoster; Docteur Lentier; Princesse Charlotte; Beurré gris; Jefferson; Monsieur de Smith; Poire Prévost; Bon Chrétien d’hiver; La Savoureuse; Colmar Van Mons; Nélis d’hiver; Belle Angevine; Beurré de Nivelles; Calebasse de Bavay; Rousselet Theuss; Petit Blanquet; Chair à Dame; Beurré de Nantes; Poire sans peau; Tyson; Rousselet d’été brun rouge; Calebasse d’été; Bergamotte d’été; Madeleine; Auguste Jurie; Barbe Nélis; Bonne Charlotte; Délices de la Cacaudière; Beurré bronzé; Alexandrine Douillard; Passe-Colmar musqué; Van Marum; Louise-Bonne d’Avranches.
Apples: Calville Ananas de Liège; Pomme d’aunée; Borsdorf Ognon; Reinette Baumann; Reinette rouge de Nieman; Royale d’Angleterre; Vrai Drap-d’or; Reinette jaune sucrée; Api étoilé; Pépin d’or allemand; Api; Reinette franche; Api noir; Gros Api, Pomme de Rose; Reinette de Bréda; Reinette rousse de Boston; Sucré vert; Triomphe de Jodoigne.
Plums: Reine-Claude de Bleecker; Victoria; Orange; Reine-Claude rouge Van Mons; Goutte d’Or; Reine-Claude Moyret.
Cherries: Cherry of Folger; Early cherry; Cherry of Kent; Werder Black Early; Rockport; Impériale; Bigarreau noir de Savoie; Downton.
Apricots: Kaisha; Abricot Desfarges; Musch-Musch; Abricot Luizet; Mexico; Abricot Liabaud; Abricot Jacques; Abricot de Nancy.
The plates are color lithographs, some notably bearing the name of A. Lefèvre; they constitute one of the most remarkable aspects of the publication. Complete copies of Le Verger are sought after for their chromolithographed plates and are described under the reference Nissen BBI 1295.
Binding: half black morocco, spine adorned with gold tooling and bearing the title LE VERGER, the date 1866, and the note: Société cantonale d’horticulture; boards of brown marbled paper.
Format: large 8vo, about 17 × 26 cm.
Collation: title; 168 pages of text; 52 chromolithographed plates in color.
Condition: binding rubbed, corners worn, stain on the first board; paper yellowed with foxing and browning, particularly visible on some plates; some tears with no loss, notably p. 53. The photographs are an integral part of the description.
[Le Verger. Periodical on arboriculture and pomology, directed by M. Mas, president of the Ain Horticultural Society, with the collaboration of French and foreign pomologists.
Second year, no. 9 — September 1866.
The title page preserved in the volume corresponds to issue no. 9 of September 1866.
Paris, Victor Masson et fils, Place de l’École-de-Médecine, 1866.]]