Rhododendron Smithii aureum. Mr Smith's Yellow Rose-Bay. Paxton c1840.

by Paxton, Joseph

Superb Rhododendron antique print. Paxton's Magazine of Botany.

Original hand-coloured lithograph, drawn and lithographed by Samuel Holden for Joseph Paxton's Magazine of Botany & Register of Flowering Plants, published in London c1840.

Sir Joseph Paxton (1803-1865) was a hugely talented man. Starting as a gardener at 14, with little education, his enthusiasm, ability and application were rewarded by employment when 23 as Head Gardener of the Duke of Devonshire’s Chatsworth Estate - one of England’s finest gardens. Although best known as a landscape gardener, Paxton became both architect and engineer. His design for a glass house conservatory at Chatsworth served as a model for Paxton’s design of the Crystal Palace for London's Great International Exhibition of 1851 (for which he received his knighthood).

Size: 230 x 155mm (9 x 6 inches).