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Cotton Thistle

Print
1777-1798 (engraved), 1777-1798 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

William Curtis's Flora Londinensis was a field guide to the wild flowers growing within ten miles of London. It was a serial publication that came out between 1777 and 1798. For the engraved, hand-coloured illustrations Curtis employed some of the most prominent botanical artists. Curtis was a botanist who worked at the Chelsea Physic Garden and then established the London Botanic Garden at Lambeth. He later found commercial success with the Botanical Magazine from 1787.

In almost every case, the plants in the Flora Londinensis were shown life-size on folio pages large enough not to restrict their subjects. Like the early herbals and especially the manuscript herbals, Curtis’s artists show the whole plant, complete with roots. The plant is an intact entity, not fragmented as was common in scientific illustration of the period.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Cotton Thistle (generic title)
  • Onopordum acanthium (generic title)
  • Flora Londinensis (series title)
Materials and techniques
Engraving coloured by hand
Brief description
Print, hand-coloured engraving, Cotton Thistle (Onopordun acanthium L.) by James Sowerby (1757-1822), from 'Flora Londinensis' by William Curtis, 1777-98.
Physical description
Engraving, hand coloured of a Cotton Thistle.
Gallery label
William Curtis's two-volume Flora Londinensis describes the plants growing within ten miles of London. It was meant to be the first instalment in a comprehensive British flora but failed through lack of support. This is surprising since the illustrations achieved a rarely surpassed level of beauty and accuracy.(2011)
Subject depicted
Summary
William Curtis's Flora Londinensis was a field guide to the wild flowers growing within ten miles of London. It was a serial publication that came out between 1777 and 1798. For the engraved, hand-coloured illustrations Curtis employed some of the most prominent botanical artists. Curtis was a botanist who worked at the Chelsea Physic Garden and then established the London Botanic Garden at Lambeth. He later found commercial success with the Botanical Magazine from 1787.

In almost every case, the plants in the Flora Londinensis were shown life-size on folio pages large enough not to restrict their subjects. Like the early herbals and especially the manuscript herbals, Curtis’s artists show the whole plant, complete with roots. The plant is an intact entity, not fragmented as was common in scientific illustration of the period.
Collection
Accession number
E.1458-2010

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Record createdFebruary 1, 2011
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