Botanical, Curtis William, BM, Round Leaved Saxifrage, 1798

Date: 1798

Artist: Curtis William

Engraver: Edwards S

Paper Size: 140 x 235mm 

Print Size: 120 x 200mm

Condition: Very good

Technique: Copperplate engraving

Price: $200

Description: original copperplate engraving with later hand colouring

Provenance: 

Condition: Good. First Edition.

Curtis, 1798 No. 424,  original hand-coloured copper-engraved plate from this famous work,  The condition is very good, colours bright and fresh, paper very good and bright. The quality of the illustrations in the Botanical Magazine is outstanding, both accurate and decorative, the colours vibrant.

Biography: 

William Curtis (11 January 1746 – 7 July 1799) was an English botanist, entomologist, and trained apothecary who was born at Alton, Hampshire, site of the Curtis Museum.
Curtis began as an apothecary, before turning his attention to botany and other natural histories. The publications he prepared effectively reached a wider audience than early works on the subject had intended. At the age of 25, he produced Instructions for collecting and preserving insects; particularly moths and butterflies.
Curtis was demonstrator of plants and Praefectus Horti at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1771 to 1777. He established his own London Botanic Garden at Lambeth in 1779, moving to Brompton in 1789.
He published Flora Londinensis (6 volumes, 1777–1798), pioneering work in that it devoted itself to urban nature. Financial success was not found, but he went on the publish The Botanical Magazine in 1787, a work that would also feature hand coloured plates by artists such as James Sowerby and Sydenham Edwards.

Curtis was to gain wealth from the ventures into publishing, short sales on Londinensis were offset by over 3,000 copies of the magazine. Curtis said they had each brought 'pudding or praise'.
The genus Curtisia is named in his honour. His publication was continued as the esteemed botanical publication, Curtis's Botanical Magazine. The noted natural history illustrators, James Sowerby and Sydenham Edwards both found a start with the eminent magazine.
He is commemorated in a stained glass window at St. Mary's Church, Battersea, as many of his samples were collected from the churchyard there.
This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Curtis when citing a botanical name.