Artists and books

The naturalists, artists and publications behind the plates in the collection.

Benjamin Maund 15 prints: Benjamin Maund, publisher of The Botanic Garden (1825 to 1851), small hand-coloured plates of garden flowers.
Bertuch 312 prints: Friedrich Justin Bertuch, Bilderbuch für Kinder (Weimar, 1790 to 1830), a picture encyclopaedia in twelve volumes with a wealth of natural history plates.
Brehm 9 prints: Alfred Brehm, Brehms Tierleben (from 1864), the standard German animal encyclopaedia.
Buffon 82 prints: Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, whose Histoire naturelle (Paris, from 1749) ran to dozens of volumes and countless later editions.
Calwer's Käferbuch 37 prints: The German beetle handbook first published by C. G. Calwer in 1858 and reissued into the 20th century with colour plates.
Curtis's Botanical Magazine 57 prints: Founded in London by William Curtis in 1787 and published ever since, it is the longest-running botanical periodical with coloured plates.
Cuvier 8 prints: Georges Cuvier, whose Règne animal was issued in several illustrated editions in the 19th century.
Duméril 3 prints: André Marie Constant Duméril, the French zoologist, and the plates published with his work.
E. J. Lowe 19 prints: Edward Joseph Lowe, Ferns: British and Exotic (London, from 1856), the classic Victorian fern book.
F. O. Morris 3 prints: Francis Orpen Morris, A History of British Birds (from 1851), with wood engravings coloured by hand.
Goldsmith 6 prints: Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774), and its many illustrated editions.
H. E. Dresser 5 prints: Henry Eeles Dresser, A History of the Birds of Europe (London, 1871 to 1896), with lithographs by Keulemans and Wolf.
Hector Giacomelli 9 prints: Hector Giacomelli (1822 to 1904), the French illustrator celebrated for small, exact studies of birds among flowers.
Hooker 11 prints: Plates connected with William Jackson Hooker and Joseph Dalton Hooker, successive directors of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
J. G. Keulemans 3 prints: John Gerrard Keulemans (1842 to 1912), the Dutch bird artist who drew for most of the major ornithological books of his day.
Jacquin 4 prints: Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727 to 1817), the Vienna botanist and author of lavish botanical books.
Johann Elias Ridinger 18 prints: Johann Elias Ridinger (1698 to 1767), the Augsburg engraver of animals, horses and hunting.
John Gould 59 prints: John Gould (1804 to 1881), the London ornithologist whose folio bird books were lithographed by Elizabeth Gould, Edward Lear, Joseph Wolf and H. C. Richter.
Levaillant 7 prints: François Levaillant, Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d'Afrique (Paris, 1796 to 1808), with colour-printed plates after Jacques Barraband.
Louis van Houtte 54 prints: The Ghent nurseryman and publisher of Flore des serres et des jardins de l'Europe, issued from 1845.
Maria Sibylla Merian 22 prints: Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 to 1717), pioneer of the study of insect metamorphosis, and the later editions of her plates.
Mark Catesby 5 prints: Mark Catesby, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1729 to 1747), the first illustrated natural history of North America.
Martinet 10 prints: François-Nicolas Martinet, the Paris engraver of the hand-coloured bird plates for Buffon's Histoire naturelle des oiseaux.
Naumann 17 prints: Johann Friedrich Naumann's Naturgeschichte der Vögel, above all the large chromolithographed edition of 1896 to 1905.
Nozeman and Sepp 186 prints: Cornelis Nozeman and Jan Christiaan Sepp, Nederlandsche Vogelen (Amsterdam, 1770 to 1829), the first great illustrated book of Dutch birds, with hand-coloured copper engravings.
Reichenbachia 11 prints: Frederick Sander's Reichenbachia (1888 to 1894), the great Victorian orchid folio, with chromolithographs after Henry George Moon.
Schreber 5 prints: Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber, Die Säugthiere (from 1774), the great German work on mammals.
Sir William Jardine 9 prints: Sir William Jardine, editor of The Naturalist's Library (Edinburgh, 1833 to 1843), small hand-coloured engravings.
Sowerby 23 prints: The Sowerby family of London, whose English Botany (from 1790) set the standard for British plant illustration.
Temminck 6 prints: Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Nouveau recueil de planches coloriées d'oiseaux (1820 to 1839), the Dutch continuation of Buffon's bird plates.
The von Wright brothers 352 prints: Magnus, Wilhelm and Ferdinand von Wright, the Finnish-Swedish painters of Svenska Fåglar (Swedish Birds), first published in the 1820s and 1830s and reissued in the early 20th century.
Weinmann 11 prints: Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, the Regensburg apothecary behind Phytanthoza iconographia (1737 to 1745), one of the first botanical books printed in colour.