Antique Print of Five British Gentians, Blue Alpine Flowers, circa 1873
€ 185
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1873
Mapmaker / artist
Anne Pratt
Publisher
Frederick Warne and Co., Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London
Technique
Chromolithograph
Coloring
Printed color
Sheet size
24 × 15.5 cm (9.4 × 6.1 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14434-2
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the left, right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and top left corners.
About this sheet
An original antique botanical plate of the British flora, printed in color in London for Frederick Warne and Co., this sheet is given over to five British gentians, among them the marsh gentian and the spring gentian. A deep blue trumpet of Gentiana pneumonanthe stands at the top of the sheet and the small blue star of the small alpine gentian opens at the lower left, with the larger blue star of the spring gentian at the right. Between them rise massed heads of the lilac and dusty pink field and small flowered gentians, drawn with their pointed lance shaped leaves and set against the cream paper.
Anne Pratt brought out The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain through Frederick Warne and Co. of Bedford Street, Covent Garden, in six volumes covering more than fifteen hundred species. The plates were printed in color by William Dickes of London, a licensee of the Baxter color process, and this sheet comes from Volume IV, which the title page records as carrying 249 species in color.
What makes Pratt's plates worth hanging is her method. Each species is given whole, with root, stem, leaf, flower and often the ripe fruit on the same sheet, and several related species are grouped together so that the differences between them can be read at a glance. The result is a composition rather than a specimen sheet, and it reads as a picture at a distance and as botany close up.
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the left, right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left and top left corners.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
