Antique Natural HistoryOriginal plates from the naturalists' books, 1600s to 1900s
Butterworts and Bladderworts, Antique Insect Eating Plant Plate, circa 1873

Close-ups

Butterworts and Bladderworts, Antique Insect Eating Plant Plate, circa 1873, close-up 1Butterworts and Bladderworts, Antique Insect Eating Plant Plate, circa 1873, close-up 2

Framed and on the wall

Butterworts and Bladderworts, Antique Insect Eating Plant Plate, circa 1873, shown framedButterworts and Bladderworts, Antique Insect Eating Plant Plate, circa 1873, shown framed on a wallButterworts and Bladderworts, Antique Insect Eating Plant Plate, circa 1873, shown framed in a room

Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.

Butterworts and Bladderworts, Antique Insect Eating Plant Plate, circa 1873

£155 ($205, €185)

Period original, not a reproduction.

Buy now Ask a question

Shipped from the Netherlands, flat or rolled, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.

Date
circa 1873
Size
9.4 × 6.1 in (24 × 15.5 cm)
Technique
Chromolithograph
Coloring
Printed color
Condition
Good. Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right and top edges. Slight wear at the bottom right and top left corners.
Period
Late 19th century
Section
Botanical
Reference
BG-14434-31
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.

Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.

Plate 167 of Anne Pratt's British flora, an original antique color plate printed for Frederick Warne and Co. of London, gives the common vervain with four butterworts and three bladderworts; the butterworts and bladderworts are insect eating plants. A large violet flower of Pinguicula grandiflora opens at the top of the sheet above a second deep purple flower, both of them carried on bare stalks that rise from flat star shaped rosettes of pale greasy leaves drawn at the foot. Yellow bladderwort flowers stand at the right, the slender flowering spike of vervain runs up the left, and the fine divided stems of the bladderworts spread across the bottom.

The plate belongs to The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, London, Frederick Warne and Co., the illustrated flora that Anne Pratt wrote and drew and that the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge put its name behind. Volume IV, from which this sheet comes, carries the bindweeds, the gentians, the labiates, the primroses and the docks, and its title page names the New York house of Scribner, Welford and Armstrong as well as Warne in London.

Anne Pratt, born at Strood in Kent in 1806 and self taught as a botanist, was among the best known botanical illustrators in Victorian England. Her books were accurate enough to be used and plain enough to be read, and this flora stayed a standard household reference for decades. Her drawings outlived her by a long way: the fern plates from this very work were still being reused, reduced and unattributed, in pocket guides well into the twentieth century.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the right and top edges. Slight wear at the bottom right and top left corners.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.

Ask about this print

We reply by email, usually within one working day.

Your favorites

Saved in this browser. Email the list to yourself to keep it on any device.

We use your email to send this list and, only if you tick the box and confirm, for occasional new arrivals. Every email has an unsubscribe link. Bartele Gallery, the Netherlands.

Your bag

Total

Each piece is bought on its own; shipping is added at checkout.