Folio Archives 191: The Temple of Flora limited edition by Robert Thornton 2008

The Temple of Flora Limited Edition by Robert Thornton 2008

To say this book is large is an understatement, it is humungous, with a dark green Solander box that is 60 x 49.7 x 8.2cm. At 12.8Kg. it is the second heaviest FS book after Johnson’s Dictionary, and the second tallest after the Queen Mary Atlas. Little old ladies would need to have a strong friend position the book for them, then never move it!

Purportedly the finest of all English flower books, this exquisite collection of paintings and poems was produced by the physician and botanist Robert Thornton in 1799. He commissioned the best artists of the time to produce the paintings which were then engraved and hand painted. First editions are now very rare and cost in excess of £80,000, with single prints often obtaining four figure sums at auction.

The 232 page full size facsimile volume has 34 colour plates and is quarter bound in dark green Nigerian goat leather with gilt spine titling. The boards are mid green cloth blocked with a floral design by David Eccles. It is printed on heavy felt-marked paper and the top page edge is dark green. There is a dark green ribbon page marker. The endpapers are plain green. The quality of the reproduction is actually quite astonishing.

Each book is accompanied by a 117 page commentary volume written by Stephen Harris that is bound in dark green cloth and has gilt spine titling and a cover label. At 30.3 x 21.6cm. it is a relatively modest size, but still a substantial volume. It is unillustrated but has essays on Thornton and his world, the concept of the book, how it was made, its reception and its legacy. This is followed by detailed descriptions of every plate and a bibliography.

Two extra art prints suitable for framing are enclosed in a large envelope within the Solander box. There is a heavy separator board between the facsimile and commentary volumes in the Solander box, and the latter is inset into the back of the box.

The book was not a success for the Folio Society. It was originally planned to publish 1980 copies, but it was a slow seller, and only 600 were ever bound. The rest of the printed plates were later sold as loose leaves in a folder at a significantly lower price than the original £795.









Solander box, one of the two loose art prints, commentary volume














































































































An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.

>1 wcarter: Thanks for all of the beautiful photos and synopsis of this fine book. For years I've shied away from these types of Folio limited editions but recently, for some unknown reason, my interest has increased. This book is absolutely gorgeous and I'll have to put it on my wish list when a fair second market price comes along. Thanks again!

Two of my favourite (and most ridiculous) books are this and Lear's Birds. Something about the size (and beauty) always makes we look at them with almost child-like wonder.

Easily the best flower book ever, but I think this was probably sabotaged by the availability of other temple of flora facsimiles/editions that won't send you to the emergency room...:p.

I have a one volume Dictionary of the English language printed on the thinnest possible paper and I never read it b/c with my back issues I'm scared to pick it up :p.

Years ago I ordered The Surinam Album from a used-book store and received The Temple of Flora by mistake. My mother fell in love instantly, so I ended up gifting it to her and re-ordering Surinam. It is gorgeous, the paper, print quality - I haven't seen other facsimiles, but I can't imagine that they can compete. But my goodness, that book is heavy! That's really the one (serious) drawback. My mother definitely can't lift it on her own.

I have the loose leaves plates, sadly I have nowhere to put them. I have tried, but too huge for my old house I`m afraid ..

It's the largest book I've ever held, and the second largest I've ever seen. (second only to the Codex Gigas aka "Devil's Bible" in Stockholm).

I thought about bidding, but I'd just be buying a ticket to the emergency room like I said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-temple-Of-Flora-Book-John-Thornton-The-Folia-Societ...

I bid. If I win it will join my Surinam Album, bought in a similar way with a similarly dinged corner of the box.

>9 Chemren: Ah lucky, I was going to bid on it. How is it? Just wondering - does this book come up for sale every now and then and what's usually the going rate? The only other edition is by aldersley on ebay and although brand new right now is a little expensive. Or is that now what the going rate usually is for this item?

>10 Joshbooks1: The book itself is magnificent and in perfect condition. The box does have a dinged corner, but it is in the back when laid on the shelf. However, the gotchas for the low price are no commentary volume, no packed in prints, and the book does not appear to be numbered (i.e. might have originally been a return for the dinged box corner).

I'm all set the next time I need a bed for guests, though (it's big!). :)

And with the recent purchase of this and the Tracticus de Herbis, I'm nearly there on the natural history LEs. Just need the '70's bird book. The Gould bird book was my gateway drug (and still my favorite).

Edit - to answer going rate question. I see it pop up for sale every once in awhile, usually for less than the original offer price. This copy was cheaper by half than most of those I've seen.

The market rate seems to be rising a little now, reasonably enough for an excceptional book of which only 600 copies were produced. I make it nine current ABE offers starting at £570, plus one that also includes an extra set of the prints. Mine was £367.50 inclusive of delivery from Ardis in 2017, flawless except it's missing the two prints for framing, and Ardis are noted for being an utterly honest and reliable secondary market source for Folio books rather than for bargain prices.

>12 terebinth: I'm not so sure. Nine copies sitting on abe is quite high for such a limitation, so the prices are clearly too high, while the last one to sell on eBay.co.uk, which appears to have been as good as new in the original packaging, no.6 of the limitation, sold to the only bidder for £375. I think the price you paid for yours appears to still be pretty much the reasonable secondary market price.

>13 cronshaw:

Yes, it's quite a close call, and anyone patient enough to wait for the next copy to come along in an eBay auction with a low start may well pick up a fine one for £400 or less. The basis for my sense that prices have been firming is just that, when a fair number of copies of a book are currently being offered on both sides of the Atlantic, Ardis never (or hardly ever?) substantially undercuts all the others.

>14 terebinth: What's striking to me is the huge depreciation of this remarkable edition on the secondary market, in spite of the foreshortened limitation. It's a marked contrast to the doubling or trebling of the price we've seen more recently with LEs like Mort, Moby Dick, Wind in the Willows, I Am Legend, Book of the New Sun and Dracula. Perhaps Taschen is partly responsible, since they published their own facsimile elephant-Folio sized edition of Temple of Flora, also in a solander box, which received very positive reviews, and later other smaller sized editions.

>15 cronshaw:

I suspect there is also a difference in the audience for the text LEs and the album ones...

>16 AnnieMod: You're quite right, there must be. But I'm nonetheless surprised that a limitation of only 600 hasn't been able to support a higher secondary market price for a LE as exquisite as this one.

Thanks so much for the info. I'll wait for another book to come on auction. It's absolutely gorgeous. Maybe it's just getting older but i've come to get a much greater appreciating for these types of books. A month ago I bought Tractatus de Herbis and it is stunning. I hope folio continues to produce a few of these volumes in the future.

Touchstone: The Temple of Flora

Given that the RRP of the Folio Society's limited edition of The Temple of Flora was £795 (plus P&P) in 2008 for a planned limitation of 1980 numbered copies, that the actual limitation came to only 600 numbered copies and that adjustment for inflation gives an original selling price of almost £1,100*, anyone acquiring a fine/fine copy of such a sumptuous limited edition for say £550, i.e. half price, or less must be getting a bargain.

(*the subtle and shocking the effect of inflation!)

>20 cronshaw:

I agree with all of this but I don't have a copy, and never will. Why? Because it's just too damn BIG, Russell. Big and very heavy. Even if I had a shelf big enough to accommodate it I can't see how I could possibly read it, and I have given that issue some thought. Regretably I have to pass.

>21 folio_books: It's good to know that even you have your FAD limits, Glenn :)
What's the largest edition you've allowed into your impressively comprehensive FS collection?

>21 folio_books:

Agreed. Doesn't matter what the discount is. It won't cover my hernia bill.

>22 cronshaw: What's the largest edition you've allowed into your impressively comprehensive FS collection?

Two LE's compete for the title with very little between them in height. I make The Poems of Thomas Gray the winner by the most minuscule of margins, just pipping "Night Thoughts" for the accolade. Both, of course, are illustrated by William Blake.

I have cheated a little on width. On the same shelf as the aforementioned Blakes, I have The Bird Paintings of Henry Jones, the shortest by height on that shelf, which happens to be the deepest of my shelves by a good margin. Old Henry, published quite properly in landscape format, protrudes a few inches over the edge, the only one of my books to do so.

Too much information?

Edited to cure misplaced apostrophe. Yes, I am pernickety.

>24 folio_books: Interesting! Those very two LEs (Poems of Thomas Gray, and Night Thoughts) are my two tallest after Temple of Flora. Both are nestled against each other and your miniscule height observation obliged me to re-examine them, but in my case they're exactly the same height, not a millimetre between them.

You do realise that if you were to store Temple of Flora lying on its normally vertical side it would no longer break your height limit, and its necessary forward protrusion from the shelf would bring enormous comfort to Henry Jones.

>25 cronshaw: You do realise that if you were to store Temple of Flora lying on its normally vertical side it would no longer break your height limit

I do realise that, but sadly it would break my rule of never storing Folios on their side.

Now do you believe I'm pernickety?

>26 folio_books:

What can you tell me about your rules for storing or not storing Folio books at angles? Would 30 degrees work?

>27 treereader:

Very droll. Anyone would think I suffered from OCD.

>28 folio_books:

;-) No more than the rest of us!

Actually, I have two LEs laying on their sides because, well, that’s the only way I can store them right now. I’m curious what your concerns are.

>29 treereader: I’m curious what your concerns are.

You're going to be disappointed with the answer which probably confirms my OCD. They don't look right. I doubt very much it causes any damage to the book in any way, but my mind reasons that books are designed to stand upright so lying them on their sides ... well, it doesn't look right. I could never allow a Folio book to be shelved on its side.

Take me away ...

>21 folio_books: The biggest books I've gotten from Folio, both LEs, and in fact the biggest I have I regret to some degree.
The Eric Gill Canterbury Tales is just too massive and has rarely come off the shelf. I love The Door in the Wall (Wells/Coburn)but probably would not have bought it if I knew its size (I don't translate centimeters into inches very well).

>31 laotzu225:

I can actually accomodate the "Gill Trilogy" (Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde, Four Gospels) quite comfortably on a Billy. The Door in the Wall is on my large Folios shelf, along with the two Blakes mentioned earlier, Samuel Johnson's Dictionary etc etc. But The Temple of Flora towers above all of these so is excluded from my collection.

I'm sure if we ask Warwick nicely he'll post his most excellent photograph of the tall Folios then you'll see what I mean

The tall Folios photo actually appears at the top of the list of LEs on the FSD wiki here.

The picture can be sen in better quality on Fllickr here. Click twice on picture to enlarge.

>33 wcarter: Letterpress Macbeth solander for scale (It looks so small in that company) 🤣

>30 folio_books:

Well, that’s more relieving than anything. Two expensive books with no significant risk of damage from side storage. OCD...nah, sounds more like an artistic preference.

>33 wcarter: The tall Folios photo actually appears at the top of the list of LEs

Duh! Of course it does.

>33 wcarter: The picture can be sen in better quality on Fllickr

Just to let you know, you've missed the Holkham Bible (next to the Edda) from the key below the photo.

>36 folio_books:
Thanks Glenn, fixed.

I also realised that there is a link to the Flickr photo on the FSD wiki under "How to shelve tall, heavy books".