Botanical Illustration

John Hill (1714-1775)

THE VEGETABLE SYSTEM by John Hill. London, 1759-73. Hand-colored copperplate engravings. 19.5“x 12”.

John Hill produced eleven botanical works during his lifetime but his propensity to jump from project to project, career to career, apparently made his life unfulfilling and unhappy. His best known work, THE VEGETABLE SYSTEM which included 1546 hand colored, engraved plates took him sixteen years to complete but didn’t make him a profit. In 1760 he produced FLORA BRITANNICA, the first color plate book by an Englishman to employ Linnaeus’s system of nomenclature to arrange the plants.

Medium:copperplate engraving with later hand-coloring
from Hortus Indicus Malabaricus
Framed Size: 22 1/4" x 25"
Price: $1,950

Medium: Hand-colored copperplate engraving
from The Vegetable System
Framed Size: 30 1/2" x 26 1/4"
Price: $700

W. H Fitch was the lithographer for this work. For a number of years he was the sole artist for all official publications issued by Kew Gardens. Thought to be one of the very best botanical illustrators of the time, he was also one of the most productive. Among his most important works in addition to GENUS LILLIUM was A CENTURY OF ORCHIDACIOUS PLANTS (1851), and J. Bateman’s A MONOGRAPH OF ODONTOGLOSSUM (1864-74). Fitch collaborated with W.J. Hooker, the editor of Curtis’ Botanical Magazine”, on several other important works.

Emanuel Sweert (1552-1612)

FLORILEGIUM AMPLISSUMUM et SELECTISSIMUM. By Emanuel Sweert. Amsterdam, 1612 (1631). Hand-colored engraving. 16” x 10.25”.

Emanuel Sweert produced what is considered the first nurserymen’s catalog and was one of the first artists to depict the bulb distinct from the plant. His plates of flowers were appealingly placed on each page. The copper plate engravings were then hand colored.

Basilius Besler (1561-1629)

HORTUS EYSTETTENSIS (Garden at Eichstatt) By Basilius Besler. Nuremberg, 1640. Hand-colored copperplate engravings. 21” x 16.25”.

A respected Nuremberg botanist and apothecary, Besler was also the curator of the garden of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, prince bishop of Eichstatt in Bavaria. Besler was commissioned by the bishop to compile a codex of the plants growing in his garden at his palace at Willibaldsburg. Besler took sixteen years to complete the task. Sadly, the bishop died shortly before the work was published. Hortus Eystettensis had a major impact on the world of botanical art. The flowers, vegetables, fruit, herbs, and exotic plants were laid out on each plate in a very artistic manner, and nearly life-size. The work consisted of 367 copper plate engravings. There was an average of three plants per page, with a total of 1084 species of plants depicted. The first edition was printed in 1613 with approximately 300 copies made. There were two versions produced, the lesser expensive black and white copies and the luxury version, printed on higher quality paper and richly colored. Probably one of the most interesting characteristics of Besler’s work was that it was arranged according to the seasons, showing the flowering and the fruiting stages of the plants. Winter, with its meager 7 plates of plants; then spring with 134 plates illustrating 454 plates, summer with 505 plants on 184 plates, and finally autumn with illustrations of 98 species on 42 plates. There were two later editions published in Nuremberg in 1640 and 1713. The same plates were used for the 2nd and 3rd editions. The plates were destroyed by the Royal Mint of Munich in 1817.

Johann Weinmann

PHYTANTHOZA ICONOGRAPHIA Regensburg (1737-45) by Johann Weinmann. Hand-colored copperplate engravings. 16.5" x 10.5".

Weinmann's Phytanthoza Iconographia was a mammoth work for the time period, consisting of four volumes with a total of 1,026 plates. Most originals were done by G.D. Ehret among other famous botanical artists.

Medium: Copperplate engraving with modern hand-coloring
from Phytanthoza Iconographica
Paper Size: 16 1/2" x 10 1/2"
Price: $1,900

Medium: Copperplate engraving with modern hand-coloring
from Phytanthoza Iconographica
Matted to Museum Standards
Paper Size: 16 1/2" x 10 1/2"
Price: $1,250

Medium: Copperplate engraving with modern
 hand-coloring
         from Phytanthoza Iconographica 
      Matted to Museum Standards
Paper Size: 16 1/2" x 10 1/2"
         Price: $1,250

William Curtis (1746-1799)

THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE (1787-present) by William Curtis. London, 1787-1826. Hand-colored copperplate engravings. 9" x 5.25".

An amazing feat that is still in publication today as a leading botanical and horticultural periodical. It was first designed to give gardeners a reference for garden flowers. All early plates from 1787-1948 were hand-colored copperplate engravings. They are now printed in four color lithographs.

Medium: Hand-colored copperplate engraving
from The Botanical Magazine
  French Matted to Museum Standards
Paper Size: 9" x 5 1/4"
Price: $295