About this sheet
This is a set of three original antique botanical plates from Anne Pratt's The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, Plates 229, 230 and 231 of Volume V, published in London by Frederick Warne and Co. about 1873. They are three original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split. They are the consecutive rush plates of Volume V and between them name twenty one British rushes. Plate 229 names Baltic Rush, Thread Rush, Great Sharp Sea Rush, Black Headed Jointed Rush, Shining Fruited Jointed Rush, Lesser Bog Jointed Rush and Heath Rush. Plate 230 names Common Rush, Lesser Sharp Sea Rush, Sharp Flowered Jointed Rush, Clustered Alpine Rush, Toad Rush, Two Flowered Rush and Three Flowered Rush. Plate 231 names Soft Rush, Hard Rush, Blunt Flowered Jointed Rush, Three Leaved Rush, Round Fruited Rush, Slender Spreading Rush and Capitate Rush.
Each sheet sets seven rushes side by side, their tall green stems and narrow leaves running the height of the page, with roots or rootstocks drawn at the foot. Plate 229 mixes brown, star like flower clusters with a dense green flower head at the top center and a tuft of narrow leaves at the lower right. On Plate 230 a round head of dark red brown flowers stands out at the center, with sprays of small pink tinged flowers at the upper right. Plate 231 shows round brown flower heads on slender stalks at the left, a spray of pink flowers with yellow centers in the middle, and yellow brown sprays at the right.
The plates come from The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, published in London by Frederick Warne and Co. of Bedford Street, Covent Garden, and carrying the name of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Anne Pratt, 1806 to 1893, wrote the text and drew the plants herself. The work runs to six volumes, and the title page of Volume V, from which these sheets come, records 237 species in color and names Scribner, Welford and Armstrong as the New York house. The plates were printed in color by William Dickes of London, a licensee of George Baxter's color process.
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets and a soiled smudge in the lower margin of Plate 230. Scattered light foxing in the margins. Small nicks along the top edge of Plates 229 and 231. Slight corner wear.
These are original antique plates, not modern reproductions. 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.
