The Paper Garden

The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delany Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 by Molly Peacock, published in 2010 by McClelland & Stewart. This Canadian first edition, first printing is a hardcover with its pictorial dust jacket. The copyright-page number line begins with 1, and the ISBN is 9780771070334.

Peacock combines biography, memoir, and art history to explore the life and creative awakening of eighteenth-century artist Mary Delany. At age 72, Delany began producing her celebrated “paper mosaiks”: extraordinarily detailed botanical collages assembled from tiny pieces of coloured paper. Her surviving Flora Delanica comprises 985 works now held by the British Museum, making this an engaging book about art, nature, resilience, and creativity later in life.

The volume is colorfully illustrated with striking full-page reproductions and close details of Delany’s floral compositions. The dark backgrounds and vivid botanical forms make this an especially attractive production for readers interested in collage, botanical art, women artists, eighteenth-century history, or garden-inspired design.

Seller-rated like new. The hardcover and dust jacket present very well, with only very slight apparent handling visible at some corners and edges. Representative interior pages photographed are clean and bright, with crisp text and vivid colour illustrations. The dust jacket is now protected in a removable clear plastic cover.