Vintage Observer's Books Common Fungi, Cacti, Flags and Furniture Set in Yellow, Orange, Blue and Cream

A cactus, a mushroom, a flag and a chest of drawers: it sounds like the start of a joke, but it is simply one of the more cheerful mixes the Observer's series has to offer. These four vintage pocket books stack into a neat stripe of stone, slate blue, burnt orange and sunflower yellow, with the red lettering on Common Fungi adding a final flourish.

Common Fungi, by E.M. Wakefield, is the one to watch for anyone who enjoys an autumn walk in the woods, with colour plates of caps, gills and stems that make it as handsome as it is useful. Cacti and Other Succulents, by S.H. Scott, is a reminder that collectors were filling greenhouses with spiny plants long before they became a fixture on every desk. Flags gathers banners and ensigns from around the world, and Furniture is a pocket history of the pieces we live with every day, a natural fit for a shop like ours.

Each book measures roughly 14.5 x 9.5cm (5.75 x 3.75 inches). The yellow and orange spines look lovely on an open kitchen shelf beside a terracotta pot, or on a desk next to a small cactus of your own. They would make a fun present for a forager, a plant lover or anyone setting up a first home.

All four are hardbacks in their original boards and come without dust jackets. There is light wear to the corners and edges and some fading to the spines, and the pages are clean and readable. Please take a look through the photos for the full condition.

Four very different subjects, one very happy shelf.