Beet and Wild Amaranth, Antique Kitchen Garden Botanical Plate, circa 1873

Printed in color in London for Frederick Warne and Co., this original antique plate from Anne Pratt's British flora shows the beet with the wild amaranth and two goosefoots. A beetroot is drawn whole and cut through at the foot of the sheet, the cut face showing the concentric rings of deep red and pale pink that make it the most memorable thing on the page. Above it the heavy green leaves and tall green flowering spike of the plant rise through the center, with the smaller goosefoots and the wild amaranth drawn at either side.

Issued in London by Frederick Warne and Co. for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain was Anne Pratt's largest work and the one that made her name. She drew the plants as well as describing them, and the six volumes were printed in color by William Dickes, whose press specialized in natural history plates. This sheet is from Volume IV.

Anne Pratt, 1806 to 1893, wrote more than twenty books on plants and birds and received little critical attention in her own lifetime, which later writers have put down to the Victorian reluctance to take a self taught woman seriously as a scientist. Her books nonetheless sold in very large numbers, and her plates are now the most familiar images of the British wild flora produced in that century.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right and top left corners.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.