Pyramidal and Lizard Orchis, Antique British Orchid Plate, circa 1873

This original antique color plate is Plate 216 of Volume V of Anne Pratt's The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, Frederick Warne and Co., circa 1873, showing four British orchids. The printed key names the Spotted Palmate Orchis, Pyramidal Orchis, Lizard Orchis and Fragrant Gymnadenia. The Lizard Orchis runs up the middle of the sheet, its greenish flowers each trailing a long, twisted, pale lip spotted with pink. The Pyramidal Orchis stands at the right as a dense head of deep rose flowers. The Spotted Palmate Orchis is at the left in pale lilac and white freckled with purple, beside a broad leaf marked with spots, and the Fragrant Gymnadenia rises just inside it as a tall spike of rose pink flowers. Rounded brown tubers and roots are drawn at the foot of the group.

The plate comes from The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain by Anne Pratt (1806 to 1893), who wrote the text and drew the plants herself. The work was published in six volumes in London by Frederick Warne and Co. of Bedford Street, Covent Garden, for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, with Scribner, Welford and Armstrong as the New York house. This sheet comes from Volume V, whose title page records 237 species in color. The color is printed, not applied by hand: the plates were printed in color by William Dickes of London, a licensee of George Baxter's color process. The plate number is printed at the upper right, and a numbered key below the image gives the English and Latin name of each plant shown.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Foxing spots in the margins and the upper image area. Slight wear at the bottom right and top left corners. Small nicks along the bottom edge.

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