The British Bugles, Antique Blue Spike Wild Flower Print, Pratt, circa 1873

Plate 161 of Anne Pratt's British flora, an original antique color plate printed for Frederick Warne and Co. of London, gives the four British bugles, from the common bugle of damp woods to the yellow bugle of the cornfield. A dense spike of blue violet flowers of the common bugle stands upright at the center of the sheet. The pyramidal bugle rises at the left among broad bronze tinted bracts with pale flowers, small pink flowered shoots of the alpine bugle rise at the right, and the yellow bugle is drawn at the far left with its narrow three lobed leaves.

Issued in London by Frederick Warne and Co. for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain was Anne Pratt's largest work and the one that made her name. She drew the plants as well as describing them, and the six volumes were printed in color by William Dickes, whose press specialized in natural history plates. This sheet is from Volume IV.

A plate from this flora carries its period in every line: the close observation, the crowded but orderly arrangement, the soft printed color laid over careful outline. It sits as comfortably in a modern interior as in a Victorian one, and it has the advantage over a single flower study of giving several related plants together, which makes it rewarding to look at more than once.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the top left corner. Several larger brown marks.

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