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Wild Teasel

Print
1737 (made)
Artist/Maker
Blackwell, Elizabeth (artist)
Place of origin
London (made)

This illustration comes from Elizabeth Blackwell's book A Curious Herbal (1737), which she made to redeem her husband from a debtors' prison. She took lodgings near the Chelsea Physic Garden so as to have her subjects to hand and she drew, engraved and coloured the plates herself. The publication was a commercial success and was used by medical students of the day as the definitive guide to all medicinal plants.

In the earliest printed herbals the text rarely refers to the illustrations so the reader must make the connection between the two. In A Curious Herbal the various parts are labelled. This practice came not from herbals but from other kinds of botanical publication that had established the importance of identifying each part.


Object details

Categories
Printed Pages & Sheets
Books
Illustration
Woman Artist
Object type
Print
Titles
  • Wild Teasel (generic title)
  • Dipsacus fullonum (generic title)
  • A Curious Herbal (series title)
Materials and techniques
Etching, ink on paper.
Paper
Printing Ink
Etching
Brief description
'Wild Teasel', etching by Elizabeth Blackwell (1700-58), from 'A Curious Herbal', 1737.
Physical description
Etching of Wild Teasel with small dissection of flower and seeds, which are numbered 1 and 2.
Dimensions
  • Sheet height: 40cm
  • Sheet width: 25.8cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Wild Teasel / Eliz. Blackwell delin. sculp. et Pinx. (Lower left)
  • 1 Flower / 2 Seed (Lower centre, separated from left inscription by a bracket)
  • Plate 50 (Top right)
  • 1 [and] 2 (Numbering of parts within image)
Gallery label
  • Though Blackwell had her 500 etchings bound into a book, she also issued them as individual prints from 1737 to 1739. This provided her with a steady income, which may have allowed her to pay for her husband’s release from debtor’s prison. These black and white prints cost one shilling each, which was half the price of a coloured impression.(2022)
  • Who was Elizabeth Blackwell? (about 1700 –1758) Born in England, made prints in England Printmaking activity: 1737–1739 Elizabeth Blackwell was the author and artist of A Curious Herbal, which contained 500 prints that she designed, etched and hand-coloured herself. She was the first woman in Britain to produce an herbal. However, Blackwell’s etchings were so successful that they were soon pirated by other printmakers. In 1740, she took these imitators to court and won her case and thus she played a formative role in early visual copyright history.(2022)
  • In the earliest printed herbals the text rarely refers to the illustrations so the reader must make the connection between the two. In A Curious Herbal the various parts are labelled. This practice came not from herbals but from other kinds of botanical publication that had established the importance of identifying each part.(2011)
Subject depicted
Wild Teasel
Summary
This illustration comes from Elizabeth Blackwell's book A Curious Herbal (1737), which she made to redeem her husband from a debtors' prison. She took lodgings near the Chelsea Physic Garden so as to have her subjects to hand and she drew, engraved and coloured the plates herself. The publication was a commercial success and was used by medical students of the day as the definitive guide to all medicinal plants.

In the earliest printed herbals the text rarely refers to the illustrations so the reader must make the connection between the two. In A Curious Herbal the various parts are labelled. This practice came not from herbals but from other kinds of botanical publication that had established the importance of identifying each part.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.1455-2010

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Record createdFebruary 1, 2011
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1178688/wild-teasel-print-blackwell-elizabeth/
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