Drawer IV of VII

Herbs, spices & useful plants

The plants that cured, flavoured and clothed the world: medicinal herbs from Plenck and Sowerby, spices from cinnamon to cloves and pepper, coffee, tea, tobacco, cotton and sugar cane, dye plants and the grasses of field and meadow.

154 prints

Before 1750 19 1750 to 1799 9 1800 to 1849 81 1850 and after 40

Order: Finest firstOldest first Newest first Price, low to high Price, high to low

Cinchona Bark Varieties: A Rare Hand-Colored Illustrated Botanical Atlas (1826)

$3,270

1826 · 31.5 × 51 cm

De Bry Botanical Engravings, Cinnamon, Aloe & Aromatic Plants, c.1598

$1,850

1598 · 20 × 30.5 cm

Antique Coffee Botanical Print, Coffea Arabica, Hand Colored, c.1831

$1,340

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Vanilla Botanical Print, Vanilla Planifolia, Hand Colored, c.1831

$1,340

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Indigo & Madder Botanical Print, Indigofera & Rubia Tinctorum, c.1831

$1,240

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Botanical Print of Thea Chinensis, Hand Colored, c.1831

$1,230

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Vanilla Botanical Print, Vanilla Aromatica, Hand Colored, c.1831

$1,230

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Cinnamon Botanical Print, Laurus Cinnamomum & cassia, c.1831

$1,115

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Dragon Arum, Poisonous Plant Botanical Engraving, Thornton, 1802

$1,115

1802 · 39.3 × 55.7 cm

Antique Clove Botanical Print, Caryophyllus Aromaticus, Hand Colored, c.1831

$1,060

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Gum Arabic Botanical Print, Acacia Arabica & Acacia Vera, c.1831

$1,060

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Cardamom Botanical Print, Elettaria & Amomum Species, c.1831

$1,060

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Tobacco Botanical Print, Nicotiana Tabacum, c.1831

$1,060

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Sugarcane Botanical Chromolithograph, Teboe Glagah, Java 1892

$1,010

1892 · 40 × 60 cm

Antique Sugarcane Botanical Chromolithograph, Teboe Cheribon, Java 1892

$1,010

1892 · 40 × 60 cm

Antique Sugarcane Botanical Print, Saccharum officinarum, Hand Colored, c.1831

$990

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Gum Arabic Botanical Print, Acacia Tortilis & Acacia Seyal, c.1831

$990

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Ginger Botanical Print, Zingiber Officinale, c.1831

$990

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Botanical Print of Aloe Socotrina & Aloe Vulgaris, c.1831

$945

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Liquorice Botanical Print, Glycyrrhiza Glabra & Echinata, c.1831

$935

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Turmeric Botanical Print, Curcuma Longa, Hand Colored, c.1831

$930

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Set of 2

Set of 2 Antique Botany Prints, Laurus Camphora & Laurus Nobilis

$925

Date not stated · 21.3 × 34.8 cm

Antique Mahogany Botanical Print, Swietenia Mahagoni, c.1831

$890

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Cotton Botanical Print, Gossypium Herbaceum, c.1831

$880

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Botanical Print of Nicotiana Rustica, Copper Engraving, c.1831

$880

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Saffron Botanical Engraving, Crocus Sativus, Hand Colored, c.1831

$870

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Black Pepper Botanical Print, Piper Nigrum, Hand Colored, c.1831

$845

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Long & Cubeb Pepper Botanical Print, Piper Species, c.1831

$780

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Allspice Botanical Print, Myrtus Pimenta, Hand Colored, c.1831

$780

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Botanical Print of Astragalus Verus, Copper Engraving, c.1831

$720

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Camphor Botanical Print, Laurus Camphora, Hand Colored, c.1831

$700

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Engravings of European Wild Ginger, Prickly Lettuce, and Common Soapwort, 1819

$665

1819 · 21.7 × 27.5 cm

Wild Lettuce, Tansy, and Licorice: Botanical Illustrations from 1819

$665

1819 · 21.7 × 27.5 cm

Sweet Flag, Russian Licorice, and Opium Poppy: Botanical Illustrations 1819

$665

1819 · 21.7 × 27.5 cm

Antique Mustard Botanical Print, Sinapis Alba & Nigra, c.1831

$665

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Caper Botanical Print, Capparis Spinosa, Hand Colored, c.1831

$655

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Rice Botanical Print, Oryza Sativa, Hand Colored, c.1831

$650

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Antique Bay Laurel Botanical Print, Laurus Nobilis, Hand Colored, c.1831

$640

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Verdant Wonders: Exotic Trees and Spices of India in De Bry's 1601 Illustration

$620

1601 · 20 × 30 cm

Botanical Illustration of the Castor Oil Plant (Ricinus communis), 1696

$610

1696 · 25.7 × 37.8 cm

Antique Lichen Botanical Print, Dye & Chemical Species, c.1831

$550

1831 · 22.7 × 27.1 cm

Set of 10

Set of 10 English Botanical Prints 1902, Valerian & Lamb’s-Lettuce

$550

1902 · 16.7 × 25 cm

Spices of the Tropics: Cinnamon and Cassia in De Bry's 1601 Illustration

$540

1601 · 20 × 30 cm

New World Flora: Aloe, Maguey, and Mexican Plants in De Bry's 1601 Work

$540

1601 · 20 × 30 cm

Antique Botanical Prints Set, German Atlas Plants & Grasses, circa 1885

$505

1885 · 42 × 32 cm

Botanical Illustration of White Turmeric (Curcuma zedoaria) by Blackwell, 1696

$495

1696 · 25.3 × 41 cm

Botanical Illustration of Sesame Plant (Sesamum indicum), Munting’s 1696 Herbal

$495

1696 · 26 × 41.7 cm

Botanical Illustration of Cardamom Plant (Cardamomum majus arborescens) , 1696

$495

1696 · 24.2 × 40 cm

About herbs, spices & useful plants

For most of history, botany was medicine. Herbals described the plants a physician needed, and the medical botanies of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Plenck's Icones Plantarum Medicinalium (Vienna, from 1788), engraved them with scientific care. Spices and plantation crops followed the trade routes: cinnamon, cloves and pepper from the East Indies, coffee, tea, tobacco, cotton and sugar cane from the colonies.

This drawer gathers them all, with the kitchen herbs of Bertuch's Bilderbuch, the dye plants of the German atlases and the meadow grasses of Victorian botany.

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 herbs, spices & useful plants

Are the medicinal plant prints accurate?

They were made for physicians and apothecaries, so accuracy mattered: most show the root, flower and seed of the plant as well as its habit. Their uses reflect the medicine of their day.