About us
The Florilegius collection of over 10,000 engravings is now being digitized and uploaded. Currently about 2,000 images are online and fully searchable by criteria such as flower name (common English and Latin names), flower type, color, meaning (in language of flowers), and artist's name.
The collection includes fine examples of the greatest flower books of the 18th and 19th centuries, such as Redoute's "Les Roses," Curtis's "Botanical Magazine," Edwards's "Botanical Register," Lindley's "Pomological Magazine," Turpin's "Flore Medicale," Smith's "British Botany," and many others.
The artists include giants of botanical art such as Sydenham Edwards, William Jackson Hooker, James Sowerby, Walter Fitch, Samuel Holden, William Clark, Pierre Joseph Redoute, Pancrace Bessa and Pierre Jean-Francois Turpin. We also have a fine selection of lesser known but equally talented women botanical artists such as Mrs. Withers, Miss Drake, the Maund sisters, Anne-Ernestine Panckoucke and Louisa Ann Twamley.
Florilegius coming soon...
The Florilegius collection comprises hundreds of volumes of colour-plate books from the 18th and 19th centuries. While the primary focus is botanical and floral, the collection also includes illustrated books on natural history subjects (birds, animals, fish, insects, shells, etc.), costume, portraits, history, theatre, caricature, and many more.
The botanical collection includes over 2,000 plates from “English Botany” illustrated by James Sowerby; 700 plates from the “Botanical Register” illustrated by Ms. Sarah Drake; 1,000 representative plates from the “Botanical Magazine” illustrated by the artists Sydenham Edwards, William Jackson Hooker, Walter Fitch and Matilda Smith; 400 plates from the “Botanical Cabinet” by George Loddiges; 200 plates from F. G. Hayne's “Getreue Darstellung und Beschreiben” of medical botany; hundreds of roses by artists including Redoute, Henry Andrews, Walter Fitch and John Lindley; colour plates and engravings of trees from Michaux' “American Sylva” and Evelyn's “Sylva”; hundreds of hand-coloured prints of medical plants from Chaumeton, Woodville, Churchill and Stephenson, Hayne, Wilhelm and Zorn; 70 plates of fruit from John Lindley's “Pomological Magazine” by Mrs. Withers; 200 handcoloured lithographs of medical plants from “Plantae Utiliores” by Mary Burnett.
The natural history collection includes: 500 plates of animals, birds, fish, insects and flowers from Levrault's “Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles” illustrated by Turpin; 200 plates of birds from “General History of Birds” by Latham; 300 plates of birds from “British Birds” by Edward Donovan; 100 plates of insects from “Exotic Entomology” by Dru Drury; 200 hand-coloured plates of birds and animals from John Hill's “Natural History”; 200 exquisite hand-coloured plates of birds, shells, animals and fish from Shaw's “Naturalist's” Miscellany by Frederick Nodder; 700 uniquely composed hand-coloured prints from Guerin's “Dictionnaire Pittoresque d'Histoire Naturelle” by Friess; 50 quirky coloured prints of animals from Rev. Thomas Smith's “Naturalist's Cabinet”; 200 hand-coloured prints of various subjects from Bertuch's “Bilderbuch fur Kinder”; 100 dramatic engravings of animals from Wood's “Zoography” by William Daniell; 100 very fine engravings of animals from Pennant's “History of Quadupeds” by P. Mazell; and 500 engravings of birds and animals from Shaw's “General Zoology” by Mrs. Griffiths.
We also have hundreds of engravings of various subjects from Roman and classical subjects to military costume, from the “Dance of Death” to social comedy by Rowlandson, Cruikshank, Dagley, and others. We have images of the “Dance of Death” by Holbein engraved by Hollar and Deuchar, or reinterpreted in colour by Mechel, Rowlandson and Dagley. There are hundreds of handcoloured lithographs of French opera and stage performers in costume from “Galerie Dramatique” by Lacauchie; hundreds of engravings of 18th century British actors from “Bell's Theatre” and “Bell's Edition of Shakespeare” by Roberts; 140 engravings from Strutt's “Sports and Pastimes of the People of England”; and 140 engravings of arms and armor from Grose's “Military Antiquities”.
In the secret section, there are handcoloured prints of the erotica at Pompeii from “Musee de Naples”, and engravings of orgies from “La Vie Privee des Douze Cesars”.