Are these mostly scientific plant illustrations?

No. Painted flower still lifes outnumber single-specimen botanical work by a wide margin, with "still life" in 108 of 302 titles. The scientific side is there in the printed plates, numbered illustrations taken from bound botanical works and usually sold framed and singly. They make up roughly one listing in eight.

What mediums turn up in this category?

Oil leads, in 103 titles, on canvas, board and panel. Watercolour is second at 77 titles, with gouache in eight. Printed work covers engravings, lithographs and a run of 1930s mounted wood engravings. The samples also record oil on porcelain panel, oil on metal, oil on mahogany and oak, and gouache on silk.

How old is most of the material?

Dealer-supplied dates span 1750 to 1960. The largest single bucket is the broad "19th Century" at 55 listings, with 15 more given only as "Victorian". The twentieth century is spread evenly across the decades from the 1900s to the 1960s. Eighteenth-century pieces are a handful in the samples, and one seventeenth-century attribution appears.

Do pairs and sets come up often?

Often enough to count as a habit. "Pair" runs through 30 titles, and groups of four, six, seven, eight and ten all appear, up to a set of ten academic sketch studies. Matched sets in matching frames are described that way in listings, and they sit toward the top of the sampled range.

Is Chinese or Japanese work found here?

It is the rarest origin in the category, a small but consistent seam running through the titles. The forms recorded are watercolours on pith and rice paper, gouache on silk, and Japanese botanical woodblock sets.

What subjects share the frame with flowers?

Fruit appears in 12 titles, and vases, jugs and baskets are the usual containers. Insects, butterflies, birds' nests and shells recur often enough to count as a theme, with "bird" alone in 12 titles. Two one-off forms also turn up: a framed herbarium of pressed plant material, and a Regency cut-paper flower picture.

Home > Art > Botanical Art > Page 10

Antique Botanical Art

215 items · page 10 of 14

← Page 10 of 14 →

Pictures of flowers and plants, from framed oil still lifes of cut blooms to watercolour studies and printed plates lifted from bound botanical works.