Early 1800s Still-life Prints

This early 19th century hand-colored double fold-out botanical engraving is entitled "Ornithogalum Squilla" (Common Red-rooted Sea-Onion or Officinal Squill), plate 918, published in...

Artist: William Curtis (English, 1746-1799) Title: Set of Six Hand-Colored Engravings Portfolio: The Botanical Magazine Year: 1804-1816 Medium: Set of Six Original Hand-Colored Engra...

Artist: Ferdinand Bernhard Vietz (Austrian, 1772-1815) Titles: "Anchusa Tinctoria (Dyer's Alkanet)", "Sanguisorba Officinalis (Great Burnet)", "Napellus (Monkshood)", "Tragopogon Por...

POITEAU, A. and P. TURPIN. Traité des arbres fruitiers: A Set of Four Grapes. Paris, H. Perronneau for T. Delachausée, 1807. A set of four stipple-engraved p...

POITEAU, A. and P. TURPIN. Traité des arbres fruitiers: A Set of Four Peaches H. Perronneau for T. Delachausée, Paris 1807-1835. A set of four stipple-engraved plates printed ...

Stipple-engraved plate of Bananas printed in colours and finished by hand. [Chez l’Auteur, Paris, 1802] The highest peak of Redoute's artistic and botanical achievement... Among the most important monuments of botanical illustration ever to be published." (Frans A. Stafleu, "Redoute - peintre de fleurs" in A Catalogue of Redouteana). Redoute was at the height of his powers during the publication of Les Liliacees. It is easily the equal in accomplishment of its more popular successor, Les Roses. The work is broader than its title implies, including as it does petaloid monocotyledons in general belonging, for example to Commelinaceae, Bromeliaceae, Liliaceae, At this time, he had as patron and sponsor Josephine...

An original stipple engraving printed in colors with additional hand-coloring on wove paper by French artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759-1840) titled "Myrsine Africana (Cape Myrtle)"...

Anatomy of the Dragon Arum & Anatomy of the Queen Flower 1804 by Dr. Robert Thornton from A New Illustration of the Sexual System of Linnaeus by Thornton [The Genera of Exotic and Indigenous Plants that are to be met with in Great Britain; arranged according to the reformed system, by Thornton] The Temple of Flora 1787-1810. An offshoot of his larger masterpiece of the same title, Thornton attempted to explain Linnaean botany, as well as expound upon his own botanical theories. The work celebrates great contemporary and historical botanists and their supporters and also includes plates of many cross-sections of plant stems. Cf. Nissen BBI 1955. Both the Anatomy of the Dragon Arum and the Anatomy of the Queen flower are illustrated by Peter Charles Henderson . They are in good condition with a few small marginal tears repaired at edges and minor age appropriate foxing. These prints are professionally and beautifully hand colored. Dr. Robert John Thornton ( 1768 -1837 ) was an English physician and botanical writer and a member of the University of Cambridge and the Royal London College of Physicians. He had a great love of botany and is best known for the his dramatic large folio plates of The Temple of Flora published in 1799. Complete volumes and even individual prints of The Temple of Flora are rare and found in the rare book rooms...

This early 19th century hand-colored double fold-out botanical engraving is entitled "Ornithogalum Squilla" (Common Red-rooted Sea-Onion or Officinal Squill), plate 918, published in...

Plate L Black Muscadine Aquatint, engraving with some stipple, printed in colors with hand finishing, 1804-1812 Engraved signature on the bottom left From: Pomona Britannica or A Collection of the Most Esteemed Fruits (90 Plates) Published: White, Cochrane & Co., E. Lloyd and W. Lindsell, London: [1804-] 1812 Format: Folio size, 1st edition Printer: Thomas Bensley (active c. 1760-1935) Pomona Britannica, or a Collection of the Most Esteemed Fruits at present cultivated in the country…selected principally from the royal gardens at Hampton Court…accurately drawn and coloured from nature, with full descriptions was published in London from 1804—1812. Comprising 90 aquatint engravings, including 256 depictions of British fruit, after paintings by George Brookshaw. Published in London and engraved by R. Brookshaw and H. Merke. George Brookshaw (1751—1823) was born in Birmingham, England where he was apprenticed to Samuel Troughton (d. 1783), a Birmingham painter and japanner. According to a recent blog post related to St. Philips Cathedral, Birmingham, England, entitled In Search of Sobieski Brookshaw, by Gill Partridge, he may have received some art training from his father, also named George Brookshaw, who is listed as an engraver in a document dated 1751. George Brookshaw’s brother, Richard Brookshaw (1736—c.1804) was a portrait painter and engraver well versed in mezzotint and copperplate engraving techniques, and may have instructed his brother. In 1777, Brookshaw moved from Birmingham to London and began a celebrated career building fine cabinets detailed with hand-painted botanical and pomological motifs. Shortly afterward, in 1778, he married Sobieski Grice (1749—1811), daughter of William Grice, a prosperous gunsmith.The Prince of Wales was the most distinguished of Brookshaw’s well-heeled patrons, and today examples of Brookshaw’s cabinetry may be seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. According to church records noted in Gill Partridge’s post, both George Brookshaw and Sobieski Grice were baptized at the Birmingham Cathedral. In his cabinet-making shop, Brookshaw also offered lessons in flower painting to ‘Ladies of Taste and Fashion’. During the mid 1790s, it appears his furniture-making business went bankrupt, and he led his life under an assumed name, G. Brown. In 1991, Lucy Wood wrote two articles in which she drew the connection between G. Brown and George Brookshaw. During his years of anonymity, Brookshaw worked as an illustrator of botanical books and gave flower-painting lessons, which may have been his primary source of income. Apparently, the marriage dowry he enjoyed while married to Sobieski Grice was lost after their marriage dissolved. Brookshaw returned to public view as the earliest parts of Pomona Britannica were issued. In Flower and Print Books of the 18th and Early 19th Centuries, Gordon Dunthorne extolls the virtues of George Brookshaw’s large folio edition. “One of the eminent English artists of the early nineteenth century is George Brookshaw, who issued in 1812, Pomona Britannica. Ninety aquatint plates, printed in colour and on a scale comparable to Thornton’s Temple of Flora...

Group of twelve stipple-engraved plates of Irises, printed in colours and finished by hand. [Chez L'Ateur, Paris, 1802] The highest peak of Redoute's artistic and botanical achiev...

Artist: James Sowerby (English, 1757-1822) Title: "Rosa Tomentosa (Harsh Downy-rose)" (Plate 990) Portfolio: English Botany Year: 1802 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Engraving on wove paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: J. Davis, Richard and Arthur Taylor, London, UK Publisher: James Sowerby, London, UK Reference: Henrey No. 1366-1368; Hunt No. 717; Nissen BBI No. 2225-2226; Pritzel No. 8789-8791; Stafleu and Cowan No. 12221 Framing: Recently framed in a gold gilded, fluted moulding with 100% cotton rag matting from Holland. All archival Framed size: 14.75" x 12" Image size: 7.13" x 4.25" Condition: In excellent condition Notes: Comes from Sowerby's monumental thirty-seven volume, bound in thirty-six, portfolio "English Botany" or "Coloured Figures of British Plants" (1790-1814), which consists of 2,592 hand-colored engravings. Rosa tomentosa, otherwise known as the harsh downy-rose, is a species of plant in the family Rosaceae. It is native to the British Isles, where it is commonest in Wales and west and south-east England. It typically flowers between June and July and can be found in hedgerows and woodland margins. Biography: James Sowerby (21 March 1757-25 October 1822) was an English naturalist, illustrator and mineralogist. Contributions to published works, such as A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland...