Drawer I of VII

Flowers

Flowering plants from the garden, the glasshouse and the meadow: lilies, roses, tulips and rhododendrons from Van Houtte's Flore des Serres, Curtis's Botanical Magazine and Maund's Botanic Garden, British wildflowers, alpine flowers and exotic plants from the Cape to Java.

552 prints

Before 1750 25 1750 to 1799 28 1800 to 1849 119 1850 and after 304

Order: Price, high to lowOldest first Newest first Price, low to high

Basilius Besler Spurge, Glasswort & Pennywort Botanical Engraving, 1613

$3,830

1613 · 42.8 × 51.2 cm

Antique Botanical Print of Carnations by Jean-Louis Prévost, 1805

$3,325

1805 · 47.5 × 60.4 cm

Large Masterpiece of Botanical Illustration from the Dutch East Indies, 1854

$1,580

1854 · 54 × 69.7 cm

Antique Royal Poinciana Botanical Chromolithograph by Hoola van Nooten, c. 1880

$1,455

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Antique Red Heliconia Botanical Chromolithograph by Hoola van Nooten, c. 1880

$1,340

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Original Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Queen's Crape Myrtle, c. 1880

$1,275

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Original Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Pride of Burma, c. 1880

$1,120

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Original Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Yellow Saraca, c.1880

$1,120

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Original Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Buddha's Hand Citron, c. 1880

$1,120

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Set of 10

Alpine Gentiana Botanical Wall Collection, Set of 10, Antique Chromolithos, 1897

$1,115

1897 · 12.5 × 18.5 cm

Original Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Chinese Sterculia, c. 1880

$1,010

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Original Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Joseph's Coat, ca.1880

$1,010

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Two Stems with Red Flowers, Botanical Watercolor by A.L., 1819

$1,010

1819 · 13.4 × 31.6 cm

Original Garden Croton (Joseph's Coat) Botanical Chromolithograph, c. 1880

$985

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Set of 5

Set of 5 Antique Botany Prints, Aristolochia Species

$935

Date not stated · 21.3 × 34.8 cm

Set of 8

Antique Botanical Prints Alpine Flora Set of 8, Chromolithographs, 1897

$895

1897 · 12.5 × 18.5 cm

Original Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Oyster Plant, c.1880

$895

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Set of 8

Set of 8 Antique Alpine Botanical Chromolithographs, Atlas der Alpenflora 1897

$895

1897 · 12.5 × 18.5 cm

Set of 8

Antique Alpine Speedwell and Wulfenia Small Botanical Prints, Set of 8, 1897

$895

1897 · 12.5 × 18.5 cm

Alpine Foxglove & Wildflowers, Small Seizded Antique Botanical Print Set, 1897

$895

1897 · 12.5 × 18.5 cm

Eight Small Original Antique Pedicularis Wildflower Prints from the Alps, 1897

$895

1897 · 12.5 × 18.5 cm

Hand-colored Mezzotint Engraving of a Lily from Johann Weinmann's Work, 1748

$890

1748 · 25 × 43 cm

Botanical Elegance: Antique Engravings from Johann Weinmann's Masterpiece, 1748

$890

1748 · 25 × 43 cm

Original Antique Poinsettia Botanical Chromolithograph by Hoola van Nooten, 1880

$845

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Set of 8

Antique Botanical Prints Alpine Gentians Set of 8, Chromolithographs, 1897

$785

1897 · 12.5 × 18.5 cm

Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Torch Ginger by Hoola van Nooten, c.1880

$785

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Heart of Jesus Caladium, Original Antique Botanical Print by van Nooten, c.1880

$785

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Original Antique Peace Lily Botanical Chromolithograph by Hoola van Nooten, 1880

$785

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Original Antique Flame of the Forest Botanical Chromolithograph, ca.1880

$785

1880 · 40 × 55.5 cm

Colored Antique Print of various Water Plants including Coral in Southeast Asia

$745

Date not stated · 39 × 33.5 cm

Aquatic Elegance: Water Lilies and Pond Plants in 18th Century Engraving, 1748

$745

1748 · 50.5 × 43 cm

Set of 2

Set of 2 Antique Botany Prints, Rheum Rhapontieum & Rheum Palmatum

$720

Date not stated · 21.3 × 34.8 cm

Decorative Botanical Engraving of Sedum & Succulent Plants, 1737

$720

1737 · 25 × 38 cm

Native US Flora, Six Original Botanical Chromolithograps, 1879

$675

1879 · 18 × 25 cm

Botanical Rarities: Pristine Hand-Colored Engravings from 1845

$665

1845 · 17.5 × 26.5 cm

Antique Botanical Engraving of Tree Mallow Flowers, Weinmann, 1737

$655

1737 · 24.1 × 38.9 cm

Set

Rare Set of Botanical Engravings, Lotus, Lathyrus & Hedysarum, ca.1690

$630

1690 · 29 × 43 cm

Set of 3

Decorative Set of 3 Antique Botanical Prints, Wildflowers of Leipzig 1690s

$630

Date not stated · 29 × 43 cm

Decorative Antique Botanicals, Cracca, Genista & Coronilla, Leipzig 1690s

$630

Date not stated · 29 × 43 cm

Rare 17th Century Botanicals, Trifolium, Gula Degener & Lotus, Leipzig, c.1690

$630

1690 · 29 × 43 cm

Antique Floral Botanicals, Natrix, Astragalus & Cytisus, Leipzig 1690s

$630

Date not stated · 29 × 43 cm

Set of 3

Set of 3 Rare Botanical Engravings, Cracca, Lotus & Foenugracum, ca.1690

$630

1690 · 29 × 43 cm

Antique Botany Print of the Rafflesia Hasseltii by Brill, '1884'

$620

1884 · 28 × 38 cm

Antique Print of a the Plant Named The Rumex Acutus or Sharp-Pointed Dock, c1800

$610

1800 · 28 × 46 cm

Set of 3

Three Botany Prints Full Color Original Engravings, 1794

$610

1794 · 14 × 23 cm

Exquisite Flora: A Chromolithographic Collection from the Revue Horticole, 1855

$610

1855 · 16 × 25 cm

La Flore Décorative The Art Nouveau Elegance of Floral Ornamentation in 1896

$610

1896 · 35 × 50 cm

La Flore Décorative An Art Nouveau Tribute to Floral Elegance in 1896

$610

1896 · 35 × 50 cm

About flowers

Botanical artists drew flowers for three reasons: to describe a plant for science, to sell it from a nursery catalogue, and to celebrate it in a book for the wealthy. The prints in this drawer serve all three. Curtis's Botanical Magazine, founded in 1787, recorded each new plant as it flowered in an English garden; Louis van Houtte in Ghent published the plants his nursery imported in the Flore des Serres; Weinmann in Regensburg printed a thousand flowers in colour mezzotint in the 1730s.

Beside them hang the wild flowers of Britain from Sowerby's English Botany, the alpine flowers of the Victorian rock garden, the bulbs and lilies of the Dutch trade, and many matched sets from Maund's Botanic Garden and Edward Step's Favourite Flowers, ready to frame as a group.

Explore

By maker, by plant and by place.

Makers and books

Van Houtte's Flore des Serres 39 Curtis's Botanical Magazine 24 Hoola van Nooten's fruits and flowers of Java 26 Bertuch's Bilderbuch 40 Sowerby's English Botany 18 Plenck's medicinal plants 10 Edward Step's Favourite Flowers 48 Maund's Botanic Garden 11 E.J. Lowe's ferns 6 Fries's Swedish mushrooms 9 De Bry's India Orientalis 11 Müller's orchids of Germany (1904) 18 Alpine flora 54

Subjects

Roses 13 Lilies and bulbs 40 Rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas 15 Begonias and foliage plants 32 Cacti, aloes and succulents 29 Carnivorous plants 6 Wildflowers 45 Water plants and water lilies 26 Grapes and vines 17 Apples, pears and plums 28 Citrus and the Hesperides 7 Tropical fruit 47 Spices 29 Medicinal plants 45 Coffee, tea, tobacco and cotton 23 Palms 16 Ferns and mosses 62 Grasses and grain 38

Places

Java and the East Indies 27 The Cape and Africa 12 Australia and New Zealand 7 The Americas 14 Japan and China 14

Questions about flowers

Which flower prints are most collected?

Large, early or richly coloured plates: Weinmann's colour mezzotints of the 1730s, hand-coloured engravings from Curtis's Botanical Magazine, and the lithographs of Van Houtte's Flore des Serres. Matched sets of the same size and series are especially sought for decoration.

What is the difference between hand colouring and chromolithography?

A hand-coloured print was printed in black and coloured with watercolour, sheet by sheet, by a team of colourists. A chromolithograph was printed in colour from a series of stones, one per colour. Both are original period prints; hand colouring dominates before about 1850, chromolithography after.