Roses aquatint and mezzotint, printed in color, finished by hand, and heightened with gum arabic from The Temple of Flora.<ul><li>Robert John Thornton (English, 1768–1837).</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li><li>This rare and celebrated plate of The Roses is the only one by Thornton by himself.</li></ul> Robert John Thornton (1786-1837) was a prolific medical author and became a Doctor of Medicine at St Andrews University and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. However, he is best remembered for this great botanical publication The Temple of Flora, which formed a part of the larger work - New Illustration of the sexual system of...Linnaeus. In 1797, he also began advertising for subscribers to his planned natural history publishing venture, which eventually comprised of 30 folio botanical plates. For these remarkable illustrations, he engaged the services of the leading artists and engravers of his day Sir William Beechey, James Opie, Henry Raeburn, John Russell, Philip Reinagle and others as painters; Francesco Bartolozzi, Richard Earlom and John Landseer. Most of the images were painted by Peter Charles Henderson and Philip Reinagle. These botanical illustrations are unique as they were the first flower prints with landscape backgrounds, depicting the natural habitat&nbsp;the plant. The life-size flowers stand out dramatically and the whole effect is startlingly modern. Thornton's announced intention was to make this work the most magnificent tribute ever paid to the famous Swedish botanist Linnaeus by illustrating his Sexual System with the finest possible prints. All these were engraved on a larger scale than anything which had hitherto appeared and then were printed in colour, an expensive and uncommon method in England at this time.

English Hand-Colored Roses Engraving

Hand-finished copper engravings from Hortus Eystettensis, one of the earliest and most famous works in the field.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>Copper engraved plates enhanced by hand with color.</li><li>Basilius Besler&nbsp;(German, 1561–1629) was a respected Nuremberg apothecary and botanist, best known for his monumental Hortus Eystettensis.</li><li>Framed and glazed.&nbsp;</li><li>Published by Nuremberg and Eichstatt.</li></ul> The Hortus Eystettensis is a pictorial record of the flowers grown in the greatest German garden of its time, that of Prince Bishop of Eichstatt, Johann Conrad von Gemmingen. The garden was begun by Joachim Camerarius in 1596 and, after his death in 1598, completed by Basilius Besler. A visitor, Philipp Hainhofer, in 1611 marveled at the eight gardens, each containing "flowers from a different country; they varied in the beds and flowers, especially in the beautiful roses, lilies, tulips." The Hortus records this variety and beauty. The book is exceptional in every sense; in its variety and range of flowers, in its size, in its fine quality of engraving. It is also one of the earliest records of flowers from a specific, documented&nbsp;garden. Besler was asked to complete the work by Gemmingen in 1606; the huge nature of the task was clear to Besler and he enlisted the help of his younger brother Hieronymus and Ludwig Jungermann, a nephew of Camerarius. Printing the Hortus may have begun as early as 1607. Drawings were made in situ and from specimens sent by the Bishop to Nuremberg; the Bishop reported to Hainhofer that he had boxes of fresh flowers sent every week to Besler at Nuremberg for sketching. A team of at least 10 engravers were employed to translate the drawings to copper plates. The gardens, along with most of the town of Eichstatt, were destroyed by the invading Swedish troops under Herzog Bernhard von Weimar in 1633–4, although they were partially restored by later bishops. Many of the original drawings survive in the University Library, Erlangen.

German Hand-Colored Peony Engravings

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> and <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Illustrated" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">illustrated</a> edition of Modes and Manners of the Nineteenth Century.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3 volumes.</li><li>Oskar Fischel (English).</li><li>Max Von Boehn (German).</li><li>Translated by M. Edwardes.</li><li>Modes and Manners of the Nineteenth Century as Represented in the Pictures and Engravings of the Time.</li><li>London: J. M. Dent &amp; Co., 1909.</li><li>Each volume with 4 inlaid miniature portraits for a total of 12 portraits by Currie.</li><li>Bound in full teal morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spines, covers ruled and paneled in gilt, floral gilt decorations to front covers, white silk morie pastedowns and endpapers, top edges gilt, others uncut, each housed in their original open ended slipcases, by Riviere &amp; Son for J. H. Stonehouse, lower edge of rear cover stamped "Miniatures C. by Currie".</li></ul> The "Currie" refers to Miss C.B. Currie (Caroline Billin Curry, 1849-1940), a British book illuminator known for her miniature portraits on book covers and fore-edge paintings. She worked for the bookshop Henry Sotheran &amp; Co. and is famous for her work with the binder Riviere &amp; Son.

Modes and Manners of the Nineteenth Century as Represented in the Pictures and Engravings of the Time

A collection of engravings after <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Joachim%20Sandrart&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Joachim Sandrart</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12.</li><li>Joachim Sandrart (German).</li><li>Venice: Stefano Scolari, 1650.</li><li>Copper-plate engravings.</li><li>Each is captioned in Latin with 8 lines of Latin verse below image.</li><li>Each is numbered and mounted.</li></ul>&nbsp;This decorative series, Labours of the Months refers to the Medieval cycle depicting in twelve scenes the rural activities that commonly took place in the months of the year. These scenes all depict tasks which are necessary all year round to put food on the table. They are all linked to the signs of the Zodiac and in each engraving the relevant sign appears indicating the relationship between the heavens and earth.&nbsp; The engravings are after a series was created by the artist Joachim Sandrart (1606-1688) and commissioned by Prince Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria for the old Schleissheim Palace. Painted in Amsterdam in 1641-43, the work comprises the twelve labors of the months, also includes two allegories of time (hours of the day) (today they are housed at Old Pinakothek, Munich). As a series of etchings the paintings were reproduced for the first time in 1645 by the engravers Falck, Suyderhoef, van Dalen the Younger, Haelwegh, Persijn and others (another edition dated 1651). This series of copperplates, was engraved by the Venetian engraver and publisher Stefano Scolari who worked between 1650-70. All the plates have the Latin verses by Caspar Barlaeus below the image . The texts were published in Sandrart’s Lebenslauf und Kunstwerke.

Labours of the Months Engravings

Hand-colored engraved plates by Sepp and Sepp the Younger, of birds nests with eggs from Nederlandsche Vogelen.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>Nidus Ardeae, Nycticoracis; Nidus Platalea, Leucorodia; Nidus Ardeae, Stellaris; and Nidus Pelecani, Carbonis.</li><li>Framed and glazed.</li><li>Published by Jan Christian Sepp, Amsterdam.</li><li>Nozeman's work, which he couldn't finish, became the first comprehensive account of the avifauna of Holland and was the most expensive book for sale in Holland at the time.</li><li>The plates of the book depict all species known in the Netherlands through the time of publication and frequently feature eggs and nests, they were boldly colored by the publisher and still belong to the most famous ornithological representations.</li></ul>

Dutch Bird Nest Engravings

The earliest state of the Smirke Plates for Quixote.<ul><li>Robert Smirke (English).</li><li>After text by Miquel de Cervantes.</li><li>Engravings, Illustrative of Don Quixote, from pictures by Robert Smirke.</li><li>London: Cadell and Davies, 1817.</li><li>Folio album.</li><li>Two leaves (title, plus table of plates), plus 74 plates (26 vignettes and 48 illustrations) after drawings by Robert Smirke, engraved by E. Engleheart, R. Goldiing, A. Raimbach, J. Scott, C. Warren, J. Mitan, Finden, C. Armstrong, et. al.</li><li>Signed and dated in the print, mounted to folio sheets (one plate, number 11, is duplicated).&nbsp;</li><li>Proofs on India paper.</li><li>Bound in later brown half morocco and marbled boards.</li></ul> Robert Smirke was an English painter and illustrator who specialized in small paintings showing subjects taken from literature. His work was often in monochrome and was frequently adapted for engraving. He became a full member of the Royal Academy with his paintings on Don Quixote and Sancho in 1793, though the plates were issued as engravings in a four-volume quarto edition of 1818 by Cadell and Fields.Smirke also did pictures related to Shakespeare and for Bowyer's History of England. Some of his work is currently in the Guildhall Art Gallery. The 1818 edition of Don Quixote that these proofs were made for was translated by Mary Smirke, Robert's daughter.

Engravings, Illustrative of Don Quixote

A suite of eighteenth century conversation piece engravings in the rococo style, showing the nobility at leisure, dining and dancing outdoors in a bucolic setting.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>Each image is set within delicately colored scrolled borders featuring flowers, foliage, leafy tendrils and fruit.</li><li>These prints capture the privilege and lifestyle of the aristocracy and are typical of French decorative art in the early to mid eighteenth century.</li><li>Each is presented in a modern gilt frame.</li></ul>

La Manna Le Matin / El Mediodia Le Midi / Eldespues de Comer L'Apres Diner / Le Soir La Tarde

Engravings depicting the metamorphoses of South American insects and the exotic plants on which they feed, from Dissertatio de Generatione et Metamorphasibus Insectorum Surinamensium.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>After Maria Sybylla Merian (German, 1647-1717).</li><li>Engravings by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter and D. Stoopendaal.</li><li>The Hague: Gosse, 1719.</li><li>Hand-colored later.</li><li>Each is presented framed.</li></ul> Maria Sybilla, daughter of the German engraver and publisher Matthias Merian, devoted herself to the study of European insects and their metamorphoses. As a result of the wealth of tropical varieties being brought back by the Dutch West Indies Company, she decided to visit the Dutch colony of Surinam herself to study and paint the insect life there. She sailed with her daughter Dorothea on June 1699 from Amsterdam, and remained in Surinam until 1701. Her work, first published in 1705, "gave an unprecedented glimpse of the teeming insect life of tropical South America, with gorgeous butterflies flying around luxuriant flowering or fruiting plants and with large many-colored caterpillars crawling over the leaves. [The plates] have earned Maria Merian an honored place in the history of tropical entomology as also in botanical illustration" (W.T. Stearn, introduction to The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars, 1978).

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