The Dolomites. King Laurin's Garden. Painted by E. Harrison Compton (First Edition)

A colour-plate portrait of the Dolomites on the eve of the First World War, in the words of the plant-hunter and writer Reginald Farrer and the watercolours of E. Harrison Compton.

Reginald Farrer (1880–1920) is best known today as a plant collector and gardening writer, and he came to the Dolomites with a botanist’s eye as well as a traveller’s. Compton’s twenty coloured plates carry much of the book’s appeal. Dealers’ descriptions place them in Cortina, Lake Misurina, Lake Braies, the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the Sassolungo and Catinaccio groups, the Marmolada and Bolzano. The title takes its name from the old Ladin legend of King Laurin, the dwarf king whose rose garden was turned to stone. The tale is told to explain why the pale limestone peaks glow rose at sunset, a phenomenon known as the enrosadira. A folding map at the rear lets the reader follow the itineraries. The book belongs to the large group of Edwardian colour-plate travel books, now sought as much for their illustration as for the writing.

First edition. Octavo. vii, 207pp., with a folding map at rear and twenty coloured plates by Compton. Original light blue pictorial cloth boards, lettered in gilt to cover and spine. Very good. Some scuffing to the boards at the spine ends and some foxing along the edges.

Not currently on display in store. For viewing or more information, please contact: rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au

Catalogue Number: HH000948