The attribution of this rare British plant study hinges upon its compelling likeness to a signed and dated work by the dumb and deaf artist Benjamin Ferrers. Ferrers’ A Plant, Probably a Gomphrena, in a Nevers-style Faience Jardinière, sold in these Rooms from the collection of the Marquis of Lothian in 2016, is the only other known work by the artist in the still life genre (fig. 1).¹ The work in question features the same painterly handling and distinctive upright rectangular format encountered in the Lothian canvas. Furthermore, the positioning of the plant on a ledge within a niche is also highly reminiscent of the aforementioned painting.

The rare and elusive Benjamin Ferrers was primarily known as a portrait painter who worked in London at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Only four identified works by him are held in British public collections.² His most significant surviving painting is The Court of Chancery during the reign of George I, a densely arranged group portrait held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.³ The early date of 1697 recorded on the Lothian painting suggests that Ferrers abandoned creating still lifes to pursue the more secure and lucrative career of a portrait painter.

Known for being both dumb and deaf, his talent for painting has earnt Ferrers the nickname of The Father of Deaf Art amongst scholars writing on the history of deafness in Britain.⁴ Very few details are known of his life. One of the only surviving references to his career might be the following advert taken out in the The Postman published on 19–22 July 1707 which reads:

Early writers on the history of advertising have suggested that this may have been one of the very few cases 'in which a physical disability becomes a recommendation.'⁶

Perhaps the most evocative documented event in Ferrers’ life was his participating in a court case in 1720.⁷ Notes survive explaining the methods used to judge his mental comprehension and ability to communicate through sign language, a process which was required for his participation in giving evidence. Part of his appearance included the presentation of his own paintings to the Court. This comprised of portraits of Queen Anne, Lord Chancellor Parker and a self-portrait (all since lost) where they were 'agreed to be well painted and good pieces.' References were also made to Ferrers’ good judgement in the 'value of things', especially paintings.

The striking red, yellow and green plant depicted in this still life is an Amaranthus tricolor c.v. (meaning a cultivated variety). Native to Southern China and India it flowers between June and September. The Amaranthus has been known by a variety of names in the Anglosphere including Joseph’s Jacket, Prince’s Feather and Chinese Spinach. It is first recorded as having been cultivated in England as early as 1597 and is referenced in Gerard’s seminal Herball.⁸ Gerard wrote that 'It scare exceedeth my skill to describe the beautie and excellencie of this rare plant called Floramore [an alternate name for Amaranthus]; and I think the pensill of the most curious painter will be at a staie when he shall come to set him downe in his lively colours…'

The plant, acknowledged for being grown indoors within pots in northern climes, is mentioned in key botanical texts produced in Britain during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.⁹ Philip Miller, chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden, described the plant in 1768: 'the first sort [tricolor] has been long cultivated in gardens for the beauty of its variegated leaves […] there is not a more beautiful than this, when it is in full lustre. From the leaves of this plant being partly coloured like the feathers of parrots...'¹⁰

We are grateful to Dr Mark Spencer for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

¹ Benjamin Ferrers, A Plant, Probably a Gomphrena, in a Nevers-style Faience Jardinière, oil on canvas, sold Sotheby’s, London, 8 December 2016, lot 107 for £97,500. ² According to the Public Catalogue Foundation, these are portraits of William Beveridge, Bodleian Library, Oxford; group portrait of Thomas Cockman (1675–1745), Master of University College, Oxford, and Fellows Sitting in the Old Master's Lodgings, New College, University of Oxford; Three Ladies of the Leman Family and their Dogs on a Terrace, Tate Britain; and The Court of Chancery during the reign of George I, National Portrait Gallery, London. ³https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02921/The-Court-of-Chancery-during-the-reign-of-George-I
⁴ P.W. Jackson, Britain’s deaf heritage, Edinburgh 1990, pp. 17–18.
⁵ Quoted H. Sampson, A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times, London 1874, p. 145.
⁶ Sampson 1874, p. 145.
⁷ T.T. Bucknill (ed.), Sir George Cooke’s Reports and Cases of Practice in the Court of Common Pleas, 1706–1747, London 1872, 3rd ed., pp. 32–33. Griffin versus Ferrers and others. 6 Geo. I. 1720.
⁸ The first reference found to the plant is J. Gerard, The Herball, or, Generall historie of plantes, London 1597, pp. 254–55. Gerard wrote that his first seeds for this plant came from Lord Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche (1556–1625), patron to the botanist Mathias de l'Obel and whose gardens in Hackney were of some renown.
⁹ J. Woudstra, 'The Use of Flowering Plants in Late Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century Interiors', in Garden History, vol. 28, no. 2, 2000, p. 201. Woudstra notes that the Amaranthus tricolor is mentioned within L. Meager, The English Gardener, London 1682; J. de la Quintinye, The Compleat Gard’ner, London 1693; and B. Langley, New Principles of Gardening, London 1728.
¹⁰ P. Miller, The gardeners dictionary: containing the best and newest methods of cultivating and improving the kitchen, fruit, flower garden, and nursery, London 1768, unpaginated.