Scarce 1822 Curtis Hand-Colored Botanical Engraving No. 2361 IRIS FURCATA

Description: Scarce 1822 Hand-Colored Copperplate Engraving from: T H EBOTANICAL MAGAZINEO RFlower-Garden Displayed By W I L L I A M C U R T I S [No. 2361] IRIS FURCATA. FORKED IRIS. From "The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed" comes this original, copperplate engraving, a rare & sought-after early plate from the scarce early volumes. I'm listing a scarce grouping of some of the very best of the classic, early Curtis Irises. This one is likely a First Edition print, which are generally very rare. Appears to be printed on wove paper. The Publication: The "Botanical Magazine" was first published in 1787 by William Curtis (1746-1799). After William Curtis passed, the magazine was published by his brother, Thomas Curtis. Later, Samuel Curtis (a son-in-law of William Curtis) became proprietor from 1801 to 1845. The prints in the first volumes were copper plates colored by hand. Some of the later prints were lithographs.Some of the distinguished artists were Sydenham Edwards, John Curtis, William Jackson Hooker, W.H. Fitch, William Graves and Matilda Smith. These prints have a universal beauty and are a lasting documentary contribution to botanical studies. The Artists:John Curtis (1791 – 1862) was a renowned English entomologist and illustrator. Curtis was born in Norwich to Frances and Charles Morgan Curtis. His mother, Frances, had a passion for flowers and was a professional flower grower. At 16 he was already devoting his spare time to studying and drawing insects and, with insect collecting becoming a growing craze, he found he could make a living selling the specimens he found. At this time he became a friend of Simon Wilkin (1790–1862) a wealthy land owner in Norfolk, eventually leaving his job to live with Wilkin at Cossey Hall where the extensive natural history library and specimen collection afforded him the opportunity to study his emerging over-riding passion, entomology. Through Wilkin he met the entomologists William Kirby and William Spence. He became the principal artist to the Botanical Magazine in 1818. It was a coincidence that he contributed to a journal bearing the same name. On William Curtis’s death in 1799, his friend John Sims took over the management of the magazine, renaming it Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, the name by which it is commonly known among botanists today. Sydenham Edwards left the magazine in 1815 and the artists William Herbert and John Curtis were responsible for many of the plates until William Jackson Hooker took over both writing and illustration from 1826. In 1824 Curtis began his monumental masterwork, British Entomology: Being Illustrations and Descriptions of the Genera of Insects Found in Great Britain and Ireland, still widely considered as the finest nineteenth century work on the subject. It was published in monthly parts by subscription from 1824 to 1839. The Plate:The delicate drawing & coloring are quite stunning. It's a beautiful plate, full of the passion that the early flower painters, botanists & gardeners had for these amazing flowers, many of which were discovered in the pristine reaches of the ever-expanding British Empire & by intrepid explorers of the time.These gorgeously drawn, engraved & water-colored original prints were presented on their page with consistently balanced, beautiful compositions.Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved on Copper which was hand-mined, smelted & rolled, printed onto handmade cotton rag paper, inked & colored with hand-ground pigments individually by hand, & they were usually hand sewn into handmade leather-bound books.Condition: Appears to be in excellent condition with characteristic age-toning to the paper. The hand-coloring appears to remain sharp & brilliant as the day it was painted.These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, sometimes vintage notes written in the margins from the original volume's owner (as this one has), etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.Text Page(s): This one comes with its original text page. Included in the photos is a scan of a sample title page from a Curtis volume, it's for reference & isn't part of the listing. About this Gorgeous Flower:Iris furcata, the forked iris, is a plant species in the genus Iris, it is also in the subgenus Iris. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from the Caucasus mountains, in the countries of Moldavia and the southern Ukraine. Iris furcata is part of the genus irises, and the iris family. The genus takes its name from the Greek word ἶρις îris "rainbow", which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris. Some authors state that the name refers to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species. Size: 5 x 9-1/2" inches approximately.Shipping: Multiple prints combine into one USPS Flat-Rate envelope. If you're assessed multiple shipping for one combined package, we'll endeavor to refund any overage asap. Thanks for Visiting!

Price: 89 USD

Location: Great Barrington, Massachusetts

End Time: 2024-09-08T01:34:10.000Z

Shipping Cost: 8.95 USD