Water Ragwort, Victorian Hand Colored Wild Flower Print, circa 1880
€ 90
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
circa 1880
Mapmaker / artist
Frederick Edward Hulme, attributed
Publisher
Cassell, Petter, Galpin and Company, London, attributed
Technique
Chromolithograph
Coloring
Printed color
Sheet size
19 × 13 cm (7.5 × 5.1 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14372
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 right edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left, bottom right, top left and top right corners. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom, left and top.
About this sheet
A small original antique botanical plate of the water ragwort, a single stem rising from a rosette of lobed leaves and breaking into a loose head of bright yellow daisy flowers with narrow rays. The lettering beneath the plant gives only the English common name, WATER RAGWORT, in spaced capitals, with no Latin name and no publisher line. The drawing is simple and accurate, the kind made for a Victorian field book rather than for a plate volume, and the yellow is printed clean against the white of the page.
Books of this sort, with one plant to a plate and the common name alone beneath it, were published in England in great numbers from the 1870s. The style, the format and the use of the English name without the Latin point to Frederick Edward Hulme's Familiar Wild Flowers, issued by Cassell in eight series from about 1878, in which Water Ragwort appears in the second series. The attribution rests on the style and the format rather than on anything printed on the sheet.
Small botanical plates of native flowers sell steadily because they are easy to hang in numbers and cost little to frame. Ragwort is a plant anybody who walks in the British countryside will know on sight. The sheet suits a kitchen, a cloakroom or a stair wall, and it works best in a group with other small flowers rather than on its own.
Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left, bottom right, top left and top right corners. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom, left and top.
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.
