Sidonie Therese Louise Anna Hurtel d’Arboval
Collection des Geraniers, Cultives par Mlle. Sidonie Hurtel d’Arboval a Montreuil sur mer...
Watercolor on paper
[France, Mintreuil sur-mer, ca. 1850].

Oblong 4to., (8 1/2 x 11 5/8 in). Fine manuscript watercolor album of Geraniums, 100 leaves comprising title leaf with the title written within a border of flowers and 99 leaves each, with a single finely executed watercolor drawing of a geranium, some heightened with gum arabic, with neat ink captions, at corner of each sheet, the names of members of the d’Arboval family and others (presumably the owners of the plants at the time they were drawn). Contemporary gilt stamped maroon morocco by A. Giroux & Cie with their gilt stamp on spine and label of Alph. Giroux on free endpaper (covers rubbed, spine faded).

Provenance: with the bookplate of Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt (born 1882), bequeathed by her to the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, originally dedicated in 1961 as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library.

SIDONIE THERESE LOUISE ANNA HURTEL D’ARBOVAL

Sidonie Therese Louise Anna Hurtel d’Arboval was the daughter of the scientist and author Louis Henri Hurtel d’Arboval. His book on veterinary science: “Dictionnaire de Medecine et de Chirugerie Veterinaires” was published from 1826. She was born and lived in the town of Montreuil sur Mer in northern France. Keeping geraniums (grouped together with pelagoniums since the mid-18th century), and displaying them in theatres was a popular pastime amongst professional and amateur gardeners alike. Mrs. Mary Delany (friend to Georg Ehret) famously produced collages of many species of them in the late 18th-century, and it is therefore fitting that Mlle. Hurtel D’Arboval should have made them the subject of this beautiful album. From the distinguished library of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, originally dedicated in 1961 as the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library.  The Hunt is an international center for bibliographical research and service in the interests of botany and horticulture, as well as a center for the study of all aspects of the history of the plant sciences.

By 1971 the Hunt Botanical Library’s activities had so diversified that the name changed to Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. Rachel Hunt was born 30 June 1882 in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, and died 22 February 1963 in Pittsburgh. From her youth, she had a strong affinity for plants and gardens, as well as for books. These interests eventually led to her developing an internationally renowned collection of botanical books, in addition to manuscripts and artworks. She began early to collect books in her particular areas of interest. Her first gardening book, bought at age 15, was Leonard Meager’s The English Gardener, or A Sure Guide to Young Planters and Gardeners, London, Printed for P. Parker, 1670. She also became interested in bookbinding and studied with Euphemia Bakewell, a student of the English master binder T. J. Cobden-Sanderson. Her considerable mastery of the bookbinder’s craft enabled her to produce approximately 90 bindings, many of which are now held by the Institute. Her binding activity is documented in Marianne Titcombe’s The Bookbinding Career of Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, Pittsburgh, 1974. She also began to collect rare books in earnest. In addition to books on plant-related subjects, she also collected works on bookbinding, typography, and book production, as well as the products of selected private presses. Much of this non-botanical material resides in the Rare Book and Special Collections department of the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. A choice portion of her botanical book collection documented in the two-volume Catalogue of Botanical Books in the Collection of Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt, compiled by Jane Quinby and published in Pittsburgh by The Hunt Botanical Library, 1958-1961. In 1913, she married Roy Arthur Hunt, president and chairman of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and son of company founder Alfred E. Hunt, and together they established the Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library.