Viala, Pierre & Vermorel, Victor. Ampélographie. Traité Général de Viticulture. 7 volumes, folio, 1901-1910. 500 chromolithographic plates and 70 uncoloured lithographic plates. Later quarter cloth with marbled paper-covered boards, the edges of some of the covers slightly rubbed.
* Pierre Viala was one of the French viticulturists responsible for the introduction of American vines to the French vineyards after the disastrous phylloxera epidemic that by the year 1880 had devastated them. He grafted these phylloxera resistant grape varieties to French vines and bought about the renaissance of the French wine trade. He worked with Victor Morel, who was the inventor of a device that sprayed copper sulphate on vines. The two worked on their project which was to catalogue and illustrate every known variety of grape worldwide. They worked with a vast team of wine makers and agriculturists over a period of 17 years to produce this magnificent work.