Romeyn B. Hough. The Woodbook. The Complete Plates

Culled and assembled by Romeyn Beck Hough between 1888 and 1913 in what still remains a stunning and unparalleled achievement, American Woods―originally published in 14 volumes, with actual specimens mounted on card stock―is a work of breathtaking beauty that has set the standard for the study of trees and wood. The Woodbook reproduces, in painstaking facsimile, all of the specimen pages from the original volumes; for this purpose, TASCHEN obtained an extremely rare original set of volumes in very good condition, with minimal damage to the wood cuts. Arranged in alphabetical order, each tree is broken down into three different cross-section cuts of wood (radial, horizontal, and tangential), demonstrating the particular characteristics of the grain and the wealth of colors and textures to be found among the many different wood types. Also included in this special edition are lithographs by Charles Sprague Sargent of the leaves and nuts of most trees, as well as texts explaining each tree’s geographical origins and physical characteristics.