Flora Londinensis, Bellis perennis, Common Daisy, c1820.

by Flora Londinensis

Elegant little Daisy antique print with contemporary hand-colour.

In 1775 William Curtis (1746-1799 was Praefectus Hortis of Chelsea Physic Garden in London when he began publication of Flora Londinensis with life-size illustrations of plants that grew wild within a ten-mile radius of London. Despite the financial assistance of John Stuart, Earl of Bute (who financed the laying out Kew Gardens), William Curtis was almost ruined financially from his most ambitious project. The first plates were published in 1777, the same year that he resigned from Chelsea Physic Garden. Despite praise for his work, ten years later by the time he published his second volume, he was almost bankrupt.

Flora Londinensis.. plants indigenous to Great Britain, illustrated by figures of the natural size, by the late William Curtis. A New edition Edited by George Graves and William Jackson Hooker, was published between 1817 and 1828 by editor and botanical artist, George Graves F.L.S. (1784-1839), and eminent Scottish botanist, William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), who had been appointed horticultural director at Kew after Curtis resigned.

With collectors bringing back plants from all around the world, people were interested in more exotic plants, so William Curtis began publishing his smaller Botanical Magazine - also with exquisite hand-coloured copperplate engravings. This latter publication is still issued today nearly 240 years later (now Kew Magazine).

This exquisite plate (with accompanying Text page) is reduced in price because offset print from text page. The page size is 480 x 280mm (17 x 11 inches), with much smaller intaglio impression approximately 175 x 135mm (6 7/8 x 5 3/8 inches).