Bindweeds of Field and Shore, Antique Botanical Print, Pratt, circa 1873

Plate 140 of Anne Pratt's British flora, an original antique color plate printed for Frederick Warne and Co. of London, gives the three British bindweeds, the field bindweed, the great bindweed and the sea bindweed. A wide white trumpet of Convolvulus sepium opens at the center of the sheet, flanked by the pink and white striped funnels of the field bindweed and by the deeper rose flowers of the sea bindweed. Broad arrow shaped leaves in strong green fill the lower half, the twining stems run out to the edges of the page, and small buds and side shoots are drawn along them.

The sheet is a plate from Volume IV of Anne Pratt's The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, published by Frederick Warne and Co. of London. Pratt wrote the text and drew the plants herself, and the plates were printed in color rather than painted by hand, which is what allowed a thorough illustrated flora to be sold at a price an ordinary reader could meet.

Anne Pratt, born at Strood in Kent in 1806 and self taught as a botanist, was among the best known botanical illustrators in Victorian England. Her books were accurate enough to be used and plain enough to be read, and this flora stayed a standard household reference for decades. Her drawings outlived her by a long way: the fern plates from this very work were still being reused, reduced and unattributed, in pocket guides well into the twentieth century.

Loss or wear at the bottom right corner. Even age toning. Handling soiling along all four edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the right.

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