ROESSLE'S GARDNER'S HAND-BOOKS. NO. 1. HOW TO CULTIVATE AND PRESERVE CELERY. BY THEOPHILUS ROESSLE, OF THE DELAVAN HOUSE, ALBANY, N.Y., EDITED, WITH A PREFACE, BY HENRY S. OLCOTT.
Albany: Theophilus Roessle, Delavan House; New York: C.M. Saxton, Barker & Company, 1860. [5], [1 blank], [i]-xxvi, [1], [27]-100pp, four illustration plates with tissue guards [three colored lithographic plates and one black and white, by Hoffman & Co. of Albany]. Original embossed purple cloth with gilt lettered spine [spine and edges sunned, lightly worn]. Some scattered spotting to edges of text, else Very Good.
Supertitled "Roessle's Gardener's Hand-Books. No. 1."; but evidently the planned handbooks on cultivating potatoes, corn, cabbage, turnips, etc., etc., never appeared.
Theophilus Roessle arrived penniless in America from Germany in 1825 and after years of experimentation and frustration, learned the secret of growing and preserving white celery, which he served in quantity at his enormous hotel in Albany. This concise guide to his methods has always been admired for its delicate portraits of the vegetable. Henry S. Olcott, who tells the inspiring tale of Roessle's triumphs in his preface, was then agricultural editor of the New York Tribune. He later turned to spiritualism and became the world-famous founder and president of the Theosophical Society.
Hedrick/Woodburn, p. 546. Not in Bennett. Item #27315
Price: $250.00