Viper's Bugloss and Lungwort, Antique Blue Flower Print, Pratt, circa 1873

This antique botanical plate is Plate 142 of Anne Pratt's The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain. It shows the common viper's bugloss with the purple flowered bugloss and two lungworts. Bristling spikes of Echium vulgare rise through the middle of the sheet, the flowers opening from rose pink buds to a strong violet blue with long projecting stamens. At the right the lungworts carry clusters that shade from pink to blue at once, and their broad white spotted leaves spread across the foot of the page.

Anne Pratt's survey of the British flora appeared in six volumes from Frederick Warne and Co. of Covent Garden, London, the five volumes of flowering plants issued first and the volume of grasses, sedges and ferns added in 1873 to complete the set. Volume IV, from which this plate comes, carries 249 species printed in color, and the title page also names the New York agents Scribner, Welford and Armstrong.

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. Marked handling soiling along the right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left corner.

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