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Lot 24

BANKS (JOSEPH)
[PERRY (JAMES, attributed to)] Mimosa: or, the Sensitive Plant; a Poem. Dedicated to Mr. Banks, and Addressed to Kitt Frederick, Dutchess of Queensbury, Elect

19 June 2013, 14:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £375 inc. premium

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BANKS (JOSEPH)

[PERRY (JAMES, attributed to)] Mimosa: or, the Sensitive Plant; a Poem. Dedicated to Mr. Banks, and Addressed to Kitt Frederick, Dutchess of Queensbury, Elect, first edition, without half-title, quarter crushed morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe [Beddie 3922; Kroepelien 948; O'Reilly-Reitman 9806], 4to, W. Sandwich, near the Admiralty, 1779

Footnotes

Scarce, anonymously published and innuendo-filled poetical satire on botanists, especially Joseph Banks. The lengthy dedication mentions his work on the "sultry soil of of Otaheité", and his "most animating sap". In the poem "the mimosa, which is sensitive to touch, represents both the male and female sexual organs. Banks, the plant hunter, is constantly in search of new varieties of his 'sensitive plant' (that is, the vagina)..." (Sam George Botany, Sexuality and Women's Writing 1760-1830, 2007, p.109). A further joke is the spurious publisher "Sandwich, near the Admiralty", a reference to Bank's sponsor Lord Sandwich. "Both were enthusiastic London clubmen as well as being fellow devotees of a free-living demi-monde" (ODNB).

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