Meadow Sage and Horse Mint, Antique Aromatic Herb Plate, Pratt, circa 1873

An original antique color plate, Plate 158 of Volume IV of Anne Pratt's The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, showing the meadow sage and the wild English sage with the gypsey wort and three mints. Hooded mauve flowers of Salvia pratensis open in whorls up a stout reddish stem at the center of the sheet, with the darker purple wild English sage beside them. Soft pink mint spikes stand at either side, the gypsey wort carries its small white flowers at the top, and the wrinkled aromatic leaves are drawn throughout in fresh green.

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.

What makes Pratt's plates worth hanging is her method. Each species is given whole, with root, stem, leaf, flower and often the ripe fruit on the same sheet, and several related species are grouped together so that the differences between them can be read at a glance. The result is a composition rather than a specimen sheet, and it reads as a picture at a distance and as botany close up.

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