Eyebright, Bartsia and Yellow Rattle, Antique Meadow Plant Print, circa 1873

An original antique color plate, Plate 152 of Volume IV of Anne Pratt's The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, showing the three bartsias with the common eyebright and the two yellow rattles. A broad head of the large bushy yellow rattle fills the upper center of the sheet in strong yellow against pale green inflated calyces. Dusty rose spikes of the red bartsia arch out to the right with the pink alpine bartsia at the upper left, the yellow viscid bartsia stands at the lower right, and the small white eyebright flowers streaked with purple are drawn at the foot of the page.

Anne Pratt brought out The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain through Frederick Warne and Co. of Bedford Street, Covent Garden, in six volumes covering more than fifteen hundred species. The plates were printed in color by William Dickes of London, a licensee of the Baxter color process, and this sheet comes from Volume IV, which the title page records as carrying 249 species in color.

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.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom and top edges. Slight wear at the bottom left, bottom right and top left corners. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the left.

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