Sand, Crow and Chive Garlic, Set of 2 Antique Botanical Plates, circa 1873

This is a set of two original antique botanical plates of British garlics from Anne Pratt's The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, Plates 224 and 225 of Volume V, published in London by Frederick Warne and Co. about 1873. They are two original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split. The two sheets run consecutively in the volume and divide seven garlics between them. Plate 224 names Flowering Great Round Headed Garlic, Sand Garlic and Streaked Field Garlic. Plate 225 names Bulbiferous Great Round Headed Garlic, Chive Garlic, Crow Garlic and Small Round Headed Garlic.

On Plate 224 a large round head of pale green and pinkish white flowers fills the left of the sheet, with long ribbon like leaves curving up behind it, and to the right a smaller head of pink flowers springs from a brown and purple center. Two bulbs are drawn below, a brown pointed bulb at the lower left and a sheathed bulb with roots at the lower right. On Plate 225 a large head of greenish bulbils with pink flowers stands at the top, a round head of deep pink flowers sits at the left, a lighter, open pink head of chive flowers is at the right, and a smaller head of yellow green bulbils with a few flowers rises near the center among the long green stems.

The plates come from The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, published in London by Frederick Warne and Co. of Bedford Street, Covent Garden, and carrying the name of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Anne Pratt, 1806 to 1893, wrote the text and drew the plants herself. The work runs to six volumes, and the title page of Volume V, from which these sheets come, records 237 species in color and names Scribner, Welford and Armstrong as the New York house. The plates were printed in color by William Dickes of London, a licensee of George Baxter's color process.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Foxing and brown spots in the margins of Plate 224. Small nicks along the top edge of Plate 225. Slight wear at the corners of both sheets.

These are original antique plates, not modern reproductions. This item is sold unframed.