Willows, Poplars and Birch, Set of 5 Antique Botanical Plates, circa 1873

This is a set of five original antique botanical plates of British willows, poplars, birches and their allies from Anne Pratt's The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, Plates 203, 204, 205, 206 and 196 of Volume V, Frederick Warne and Co., circa 1873. They are five original sheets sold together as one lot. Plate 203 names Round-Eared Sallow, Greater Round-Eared Sallow, Dark-Leaved Sallow and Intermediate Willow. Plate 204 names Tea-Leaved Willow, Small Tree Willow and Green Whortle-Leaved Willow. Plate 205 names Smooth Leaved Alpine Willow, Least Willow, Apple-Leaved Willow and Woolly Broad-Leaved Willow. Plates 203 to 205 show leafy willow shoots with silvery, green and yellow catkins, together with small uncolored outline drawings of the flower parts. Plate 206 names Great White Poplar, Gray Poplar, Trembling Poplar or Aspen and Black Poplar, drawn with long hanging catkins and broad leaves. Plate 196 names Sallow Thorn, Sweet Gale, Birch, Dwarf Birch and Alder; a cluster of orange berries of the Sallow Thorn sits at its center, with brown alder cones at the upper left and long pale catkins at the left.

The plates come 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. These sheets come 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. Each sheet carries its plate number at the upper right and a numbered key below the image giving the English and Latin name of every plant shown.

Uneven age toning. Handling soiling on all edges. Foxing across Plate 204, lighter foxing on the others. A brown stain in the lower margin of Plate 196, a small tear at the bottom edge of Plate 206. Corner wear, edge nicks.

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