The Boadab Tree. Adansonia, Baobab Tree. Thomas Baines c1874.

by Baines, Thomas

Antique print of a magnificent Australian Baob tree - in front of the exploration team Thomas Baines accompanied as official artist. Probably in the Kimberley region, waterbottles are lined up in the foreground, the camp is at the back on the right, and horses are to the left of the huge Adansonia tree which absorbs rain during the wet season and stores it om ots trunk, which enables it also to produce a nturient-dense fruit in the dry season when everything else is dried out. It is sometimes referred to as 'The Tree of Life' - although hundreds of years ago its hollow centre was sometimes used as a temporary holding cell.

Original steel engraving by Thomas Heawood from the drawing by explorer and artist, Thomas Baines (1820-1975) who accompanied Gregory's exploration journey from Victoria River in the Northern Territory to Gladstone, Queensland. Engraved for Edwin Carton Booth's Australia Illustrated, and published in London by Virtue & Company in 1874.

This fine engraving is in good condition, except for evidence of publisher's stitching along edge at top. Page size is 210 x 275mm. (8 1/4 x 10  3/4 inches). Engraved image measures, 130 x 188mm (5 x 7 3/8 inches).