Showing 33–48 of 52 results
Stock AA1706
“Sandalum”
A print by Johann Wilhelm Weinman from Phytanthoza Icongraphia
The first botanical work to use colour printed mezzotint successfully. This process was so expensive and labour intensive, the process was not repeated for several decades. One of the finest examples of printed botanical works available.
1736
65 cm x 51 cm
Stock GWC240
“Aethiopis”
Prints by Basil Besler, from Hortus Eystettensis.
Engravings with expert hand, colouring. Some with typical text showing through and minor spots. Very good condition.
Third Edition
1713
Stock CGW134470-19.1
“Maluacrifpa”
Prints by Basil Besler, from Hortus Eystettensis.
First edition, Elcstatt’s folio 1613, and third edtion 1713. Engravings with expert hand, colouring. Some with typical text showing through and minor spots. Very good condition.
First edition
1613
Hortus Indicus Malabaricus
‘Culi-taman’
Hendrik Draakestein
The first complete flora from the East Indies. A very fine example of hand coloured copper engraving.
Amsterdam
1686
64 cm x 72 cm (framed)
Stock CGW134463-6.6
Stock CGW134463-6.1
Hortus Indicus Malabaricus
Hendrik Draakestein
The first complete flora from the East Indies. A very fine example of hand coloured copper engraving.
Amsterdam
1686
64 cm x 72 cm
Stock AA1532A
Narcissus Polyanthos Orientalis calice medio luteus
Copper engraving. Issue with the text on verso, handcoloured very skilfully at a later date. Plate 14 published in the Hortus Eystettensis. Without doubt one of the greatest flower books ever produced in any country. The work commemorates the celebrated gardens of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, Prince Bishop of Eichstätt. The book is the earliest pictorial record of flowers in a single garden. The original drawings took sixteen years to complete. Ten artists and engravers were involved, the most important being Wolfgang Kilian of Augsburg. The author, Basilius Besler (1561-1629), was a Nuremberg apothecary and botanist. The book was completed in Autumn 1613. The copper plates survived until 1817.
First edition 1613
89 cm x 75 cm
‘Melocactos’
Basil Besler’s (1561-1629) great botanical work, “Hortus Eystettensis” is a landmark of botanical documentation and pre-Linnaean classification, as well as one of the most splendidly stylized and aesthetically powerful botanical works ever produced. This original hand-colored copperplate engraving, Melocactos, Pl. 254, is in excellent condition with light foxing and evidence of verso page text. Illustrated on this engraving are flowers commonly known as Pink Maltese cross, Scarlet Maltese cross and White Maltese cross. Expertly hand-colored, these herbaceous perennial plants are different shapes and colored in greens and browns, with purple, cacti-like buds on the center plant. Maltese cross plants are commonly used in gardens as decoration and were sown in Monticello by Thomas Jefferson in 1807. Basil Besler was an apothecary and botanist who managed the gardens of Bishop Johann Conrad in Eichstatt, Germany . The Bishop’s remarkable garden was one of the most extensive in Europe, containing a huge variety of European shrubs and flowering plants, as well as exotic specimens from Asia and the Americas. Besler used this encyclopedic resource as the basis for the “Hortus Eystettensis”, in which he studied and depicted over a thousand flowers, representing 667 species in all. With the Bishop’s patronage, he worked both as artist and publisher, directing a team of ten artists and engravers in creating 367 plates over 16 years. Published one hundred and fifty years before Linnaeus created his thorough system of classification; Besler’s great florilegium represents an impressive early attempt to classify plants for the benefit of botanists, doctors and apothecaries. Each plant is given a distinct and often descriptive Latin title, and related species are grouped together on the same plate, or over a series of plates. Almost all specimens are shown complete and accurately colored, including delineations of their root systems. While Besler’s work is obviously motivated by a scientific impulse to document and describe a remarkable collection of species, the beautiful presentation and dramatic stylization of the illustrations also convey a sense of the visual grandeur of the Bishop’s great garden. Each specimen is placed on the page with an artist’s understanding of formal and spatial relations. Most notably, the stylized depiction of foliage and root systems betrays a lively baroque sensibility, as the plants seem to dance across the page. This illustration of various flowers is among the most dramatic and desirable of Besler’s illustrations.
Third edition 1713
50 cm x 40.5 cm
Stock CGW134476-3
“Iacea” – No. 278
Prints by Basil Besler, from Hortus Eystettensis.
Engravings with expert hand, colouring. Some with typical text showing through and minor spots. Very good condition.
Third Edition
1713
52 cm x 41 cm (unframed)
Stock CGW381539-5
Hortus Indicus Malabaricus
Hendrik Draakestein
The first complete flora from the East Indies. A very fine example of hand coloured copper engraving.
Amsterdam
1686
64 cm x 72 cm
Stock CGW14462/2
Pair of early 20th Century Elwe botanicals.
Hand coloured lithographs.
Stock CGW381538/4
Thomas Pancovius – Herbarium 1536 – 1665
Scarce 16th Century wood block botanicals, engraved by Peter Holtzmeyer in 1536. They were not published until 1665 by Thomas Pancovius.
Framed and unframed
Draakestein – “Schovanna” – 1686
65 cm x 72 cm
Flore Des Serres – Chromolighographs
Elizabeth Twining
Hand coloured lithographs, “Illustrations of the Natural Orders of Plants’
Grand daughter of Richard Twining, wealthy tea merchant and widely know for the famous tea label. Elizabeth shared her time between philanthropy and study of botany which inspired her to publish this work, suggesting a new approach to plant families in contrast to the already established Linnaeus System, the later which is still used today.
Although her work was an interesting challenge, it was not recognized in society. Her groupings and artistic presenting are very attractive, this work is rare.
1849 – 1855
“Lycanis”
Prints by Basil Besler, from Hortus Eystettensis.
First edition, Elcstatt’s folio 1613, and third edtion 1713. Engravings with expert hand, colouring. Some with typical text showing through and minor spots. Very good condition.
1613
“Salvia”
Prints by Basil Besler, from Hortus Eystettensis.
First edition, Elcstatt’s folio 1613, and third edtion 1713. Engravings with expert hand, colouring. Some with typical text showing through and minor spots. Very good condition.
1613