Botanical illustration is the art of depicting plants accurately and attractively, showing their form, colour and structure for scientific, medicinal or decorative purposes. It includes original drawings and watercolours as well as engraved, etched and lithographed plates in published books.
The tradition goes back to medieval herbals, but it flourished from the seventeenth century as exploration brought new plants to Europe. The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are often regarded as a golden age, with artists such as Georg Dionysius Ehret, Pierre-Joseph Redouté and Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, and publications such as Curtis's Botanical Magazine, founded in 1787, and Robert Thornton's Temple of Flora. Many plates were coloured by hand. Botanical images were also used to decorate porcelain, including Chelsea's Hans Sloane wares and Derby's botanical services. Collectors value original works for their quality and rarity, and prints for their strength of impression, hand-colouring and condition, with margins, foxing and fading all affecting value. Framed in groups, botanical illustrations bring a fresh, ordered character to halls, garden rooms, bedrooms and kitchens, and they combine well with antique furniture.
