The Woodbook. The Complete Plates

For the Love of Trees. The illustrated encyclopedia of wood types, now in a gold edition

A painstaking facsimile reproducing all specimen pages from the original volumes of Romeyn Beck Hough’s American Woods, an indispensable reference work of breathtaking beauty that has set the standard for the study of trees and wood. In this luxurious gold edition, each specimen is broken down in three cross-section cuts, revealing its unique characteristics, grain, colours, and texture.

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 colours 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.

The author

Klaus Ulrich Leistikow (1929-2002) studied natural science and philosophy at the universities of Cologne, Tübingen and Glasgow, and then taught biology at the university of Frankfurt. From 1986 to 1989 he was Director of the Botanical Institute and the Botanical Gardens in Frankfurt-am-Main. It was there in 1988 that he was elected Chairman of the Society of Friends of the Palm Garden.