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American Turk's-cap Lily

Botanical Print
1751 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Ehret was one of the greatest botanical illustrators working in the 18th century. He supplied illustrations for a number of important botanical publications. He was also closely involved in publicising and promoting the binomial system of plant classification that was devised by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus.

Ehret painted the original from which this print is taken in the 1740s at the height of his mature style. He studied the plant in the garden of Peter Collinson. Collinson, an avid collector of new plants who lived just outside London. Ehret often studied plants in his collection. In the original Ehret notes that the ‘the lily first flowered in August 1738’. This engraving was published in Christoph Jacob Trew’s book Plantae selectae, which reflected a new trend in lavish, privately funded publications on exotic plants. It included about one hundred of Georg Ehret’s finest studies from Trew’s collection.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • American Turk's-cap Lily (assigned by artist)
  • Lilium superbum (generic title)
  • Plantae Selectae (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Hand-coloured engraving
Brief description
Botanical illustration, American Turk's-cap Lily, Lilium superbum. Hand-coloured engraving after a drawing by Georg Dionysius Ehret, engraved by Johann Hakob Haid for Christoph Jakob Trew's Plantae Selectae (Nuremberg, 1750-1773); this a proof of plate XI, part 2, 1751.
Physical description
Centrally placed stem with a large number of orange and yellow flowers mostly fully open, with some closed yellow buds towards the top.
Dimensions
  • Height: 51cm
  • Width: 35.5cm
  • Platemark height: 48.5cm
  • Platemark width: 30.8cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • LILIVM foliis sparsis, / fundo aureo, limbo auran- / pedunculis singulis (Lower left)
  • multiflorum, floribus reflexis / tio, punctis nigricantibus, / umco folio instructis. (Lower right)
  • Tab XI. (Upper right)
Credit line
Given by H. Stuart Thompson
Subjects depicted
Summary
Ehret was one of the greatest botanical illustrators working in the 18th century. He supplied illustrations for a number of important botanical publications. He was also closely involved in publicising and promoting the binomial system of plant classification that was devised by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus.

Ehret painted the original from which this print is taken in the 1740s at the height of his mature style. He studied the plant in the garden of Peter Collinson. Collinson, an avid collector of new plants who lived just outside London. Ehret often studied plants in his collection. In the original Ehret notes that the ‘the lily first flowered in August 1738’. This engraving was published in Christoph Jacob Trew’s book Plantae selectae, which reflected a new trend in lavish, privately funded publications on exotic plants. It included about one hundred of Georg Ehret’s finest studies from Trew’s collection.
Associated object
D.589-1886 (Original)
Bibliographic references
  • Trew, Christoph Jacob. Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini (Nuremberg, 1750-1773), plate 9, issued in part 2 in 1751.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1924, published under the Authority of the Board of Education, London, 1926.
Collection
Accession number
E.916-1924

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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