British plants

British plants

Author: Sowerby, James De Carle (English, 1787-1871)

Year: 1806

Sowerby, James De Carle (English, 1787-1871) attributed to British plants circa 1806 Manuscripts comprise 402 watercolor and pencil drawings with accompanying manuscript text; 433 hand-colored etched and engraved plates each with printed text leaves from James Sowerby’s English Botany . Watermarks: 1794, Taylor 1796, 1798, 7 LE, LL, W. Turner & Son, W.S., RD 9, E&P, 1806, TWBB 1808, Allee 1821, AP 1822, 1823. Half green morocco (spines faded to brown) and blue-gray paper over boards; gilt spines labeled: “British Plants.” Five volumes. Spine height: 10 ½ inches. With which is bound: Smith, James Edward, Compendium Florae Britannicae , London, 1800 (back of volume five). These interesting volumes of early nineteenth century colored botanical drawings are nowhere signed. They appear to be the work of James De Carle Sowerby, the son of James Sowerby, a hypothesis strengthened by an examination of known drawings by De Carle preserved in the Natural History Museum, and still more so by comparison of the handwriting here used for the botanical descriptions and of known letters and notes of Sowerby’s in the possession of the Linnaean Society, where characteristic capitals and flourishes c