Flora Londinensis Bartsia odontites. Red Bartsia. Antique botanical engraving c1820

by Curtis, William

Antique print of Bartsia odontites, Red Bartsia, from Flora Londinensis c1820.

Original copperplate engraving with contemporary colour, for “Flora Londinensis containing a history of the plants indigenous to Great Britain, illustrated by figures of the natural size” published in London between 1817 and 1828 by George Graves F.L.S. and eminent English botanist (Sir) William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865). Flora Londinensis was the grandest work of botanical illustration by William Curtis, but it was not completed owing to lack of funds. Graves and Hooker used the original engraved plates, and re-engraved the latter ones that had been reduced smaller than life-size in an effort to meet the limited budget available to Curtis. As each specimen was engraved as close to life-size as possible, the plate marks varied in size for these beautiful plates of the plants and shrubs that grew within a one hundred mile radius of London.

Page Size: 48cm x 29cm (19" x 11.5").