Gardening Book of the Month Botanic Art

‘The Golden Age of Flowers: Botanical Illustration in the Age of Discovery 1600-1800′ by Celia Fisher is a lavishly illustrated book of the most beautiful illustrations from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The organisation is alphabetical with a text that outlines origins, derivation of names and the properties for which the flower was most valued.

The book could become one of your most valued coffee table books or a suitable Christmas present for a relative.

The 17th and 18th centuries saw a surge of interest in the horticultural and gardening with new plants. This led to a ‘flowering’ of botanical illustration and witnessed the production of some of the greatest books of plant illustration ever produced, including such outstanding examples as the Hortus Eystettensis, the work of Maria Sybilla Merian, Thornton’s Temple of Flora, Banks’s Florilegium and Sibthorpe’s Flora Graeca.

• During this period several developments took place that led to a significant increase in the popularity and output of botanical illustration. The first was the development of the process of engraving on metal in the 1600s, which revolutionised illustration.
• The second was the development of the new Linnaean system which was helped, in part, by the high quality of illustrations produced at the time.
• The third significant development was the epic voyages of discovery which recorded and collected the exotic plants encountered in remote uncharted lands.

In this lavishly illustrated new book, ‘The Golden Age of Flowers’, ‘Celia Fisher has selected over 100 of the most beautiful flower images from this period. The flowers are arranged in alphabetical order, and the text that accompanies them outlines their origin, the derivation of their name and the properties for which they were most valued. This beautiful new book will appeal to anyone with an interest in botanical history and illustration, and flowers and gardening’.

Celia Fisher is a renowned expert on flowers and fruit in art and books. She is the author of Flowers and Fruit, Still Life Paintings, Flowers in Medieval Manuscripts (The British Library, 2004) and The Medieval Flower Book (The British Library, 2007). This title is available from Amazon for £17 post free in the UK

Botanic Art in Wales

Arum maculatum (Lords and Ladies) from Flora Londinensis (1777-1787) published by William Curtis.
Hand-coloured engraving: 46cm x 31.5cm.
Flora Londinensis included all wild flowers growing within a ten mile radius of London, which was then surrounded by fields and undrained marshland. The hand-coloured illustrations are exceptionally delicate and precise so it is surprising that it failed to attract many subscribers. After ten years, Curtis had to admit financial defeat and in 1787, he produced the smaller Botanical Magazine, which is still in production today, over 200 years later.

Further information can be seen on Rhagor, the collections based website from Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Creative Commons on flikr NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic