1852 Rare Book- Flora’s Interpreter and Fortuna Flora by Sarah J. Hale, 4 Plates

Author: Sarah Josepha Hale.
Title: Flora’s Interpreter and Fortuna Flora.
Publisher: Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey and Company, 1852.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Pages: x-288 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good binding, beautifully bound in the original full green pebbled cloth, lavishly decorated in gilt with a central floral wreath and intricate ornamental border on both covers, with ornate gilt spine decoration and titling (hinges fine, overall slightly scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. All edges gilt. A fine example of mid-19th-century American gift-book design.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, light toning and with occasional light foxing typical of Mussey’s lithographic gift books - as shown). A remarkably well-preserved copy. Complete with its four exquisite full-page hand-colored lithographed flower plates by W. Sharp, delicately printed on thick paper.
Illustrations: Includes a chromolithographed title-page with floral motifs and gilt-stamped lettering, four finely colored botanical plates, each accompanied by poetic texts celebrating the symbolic “language of flowers.”

Estimate: (USD 350 – 450).

The book: A luminous and complete 1852 gift-book edition of Flora’s Interpreter and Fortuna Flora by Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, one of the most influential American women of letters of the 19th century. This revised and enlarged edition adds Fortuna Flora, a poetic and moral guide connecting the symbolism of flowers to the months of the year and to human temperaments and destinies.

Combining sentimental poetry, moral reflection, and floral emblems, the work stands among the most elegant examples of the Victorian “language of flowers” tradition. It captures the era’s fascination with botany, virtue, and sentiment, turning blossoms into tokens of affection, remembrance, and moral teaching.

Printed by Benjamin B. Mussey & Co. of Boston, a publisher renowned for gift books and women’s literature, this edition’s hand-colored floral plates remain some of the finest lithographic flower illustrations of the American pre-Civil War period.

The author: Sarah Josepha Hale (1788 – 1879) was a pioneering American editor, novelist, and poet — remembered as the long-time editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book and as the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” An early advocate for women’s education and authorship, she profoundly influenced American domestic and literary culture. Her Flora’s Interpreter was among the first works to introduce the European “language of flowers” to American readers, intertwining moral instruction with romantic sentiment and natural beauty.