Darvill's Rare Prints, fine antique prints and rare maps since 1918! Darvill's Rare Prints, fine antique prints and rare maps since 1918!
Antique prints from Darvill's since 1918 Rare Maps and Charts Limited edition prints from Alaska's most famous artist Rie Munoz Darvill's Rare Prints homepage About Darvill's Rare Prints
Sorry, we do not perform appraisals and we do not buy from unsolicited sources.

Common Red Poppy
Common Red Poppy
$40

Lamotte's long-smooth-headed Poppy
Lamotte's long-smooth-headed Poppy
$40

Purple Martagon Lily
Purple Martagon Lily
$35

Yellow Martagon Lily
Yellow Martagon Lily
$35

White Water Lily
White Water Lily
$40

Common Yellow Water Lily
Common Yellow Water Lily
$40

Herb-Paris
Herb-Paris
$30

Common Henbane
Common Henbane
$20

Hautbois Strawberry
Hautbois Strawberry
$25

Common Dandelion
Common Dandelion
$20

Common Bearberry
Common Bearberry
$25

 

Alpine Bearberry
Alpine Bearberry
$25

 

We have hundreds of botanicals from Sowerby's "English Botany"
Please email us if you are interested in a certain variety from this series.
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James Sowerby's "English Botany" (1863-1866)
Hand coloured lithographs
approximately 6 x 9¾ inches

Having decided to become a painter of flowers his first venture was with William Curtis, whose Flora Londinensis he illustrated. Sowerby studied art at the Royal Academy and took an apprenticeship with Richard Wright.

An early commission for Sowerby was to lead to his prominence in the field when the botanist, L'Hértier de Brutelle invited Sowerby to provide the plates for his monograph, Geranologia, and two later works. He also came to the notice of William Curtis, who was undertaking a new type of publication. Early volumes of the first British botany journal, The Botanical Magazine, contained seventy of his works.

In 1790, he began the first of several huge projects: a 36-volume work on the botany of England that was published over the next 24 years, contained 2592 hand-colored engravings and became known as Sowerby's English Botany. A enormous number of plants were to receive their formal publication, but the authority for these came from the unattributed text written by James Edward Smith.

James Sowerby
painted by Thomas Heaphy (1816)