[DE LA COURT VANDER VOORT (Pieter). Les Agremens de la campagne, ou remarques particulierses sur la construction des maisons de campagne, plus ou moins magnifiques ; des jardins de plaisance et des plantages. Leiden, Samuel Luchtmans et fils; Amsterdam, Meynard Uytwerf, 1750. In-4, red morocco, gilt lace, armorial medallion in the centre, ornate spine, dominoté paper lining, painted, gilt and chased edges (Dutch binding of the period). First edition of the French translation of this important horticultural manual for greenhouse cultivation. Pieter de La Court vander Voort (1664-1739), a wealthy cloth merchant from Leiden and a garden enthusiast, had a number of early fruit barns, orangeries and hot greenhouses in his countryside, and was the first person in Europe to successfully grow pineapples. He published this treatise at the end of his life, in 1737, under the original title Byzondere aenmerkingen over het aenleggen van pragtige en gemeene landhuizen. The present French translation is by De Groot. "It contains very useful details on the cultivation of fruit trees in the Dutch climate. He also comments on the orange trees known in Italy as bizarreries, which bear fruit of several species on the same stem and branch" (Quérard). A sumptuous burin-engraved illustration comprising fifteen plates out of text, including nine fold-outs by Jan Caspar Philips and Jan Wandelaar devoted to fruits (pineapple, citrus and tuberose), an unsigned garden plan, and five representations of hot greenhouses by Frans van Bleyswyck and Johannes van der Spyck. A vegetable garden plan is also inserted in the text (p. 305). A magnificent and very rare copy bound in red morocco with the arms of an unidentified contemporary, certainly Dutch. The edges of the volume feature a very refined decoration of painted foliage in the centre and latticework of chased dotted lines in gilt at the extremities. The back covers are covered with an attractive dominoté paper with a mauve, violet and yellow floral motif. Discrete restorations to the headpieces; paper slightly foxed, as is often the case; one white endpaper repaired in the corner, the other removed from the volume. The citron plate (p. 383) has been trimmed too short at the foot: about 3 mm of the subject and the engraver's signature are missing. Quérard, IV, 372 - Conlon, 50:470 - In foliis folia. L'art du livre de jardin, Valenciennes, 2001, n°45.