Scarce 1834 Edwards's Botanical Register Engraving #236 LABLAVIA VULGARIS
$ 139.00
Rare 1830 Hand-Colored Copperplate Engraving from:
Sydenham Edwards'
Edwards's Botanical Register:
#236 LABLAVIA VULGARIS
Egyptian Haricot
From the scarce volumes of Edwards's Botanical Register comes this stunning original copperplate engraving, a rare, lavish, beautifully drawn plate from one of the most important early botanical journals.
From a quick search, this one has apparently become very rare indeed. I find no others of this stunning plate offered anywhere.
This one is likely a First Edition print, which are generally very rare. Appears to be on the original wove paper, which came to be used in the early years of the 1800's.
The publication: Some of the greatest botanical engravings of the early nineteenth century were commissioned for a periodical entitled The Botanical Register. It was published in London by James Ridgeway and edited by the famous botanist, Sydenham Teak Edwards (1769 - 1819) who produced many of the engravings and drawings for Curtis' Botanical Magazine until 1815 when Edwards decided to publish his own monthly magazine.
From its inception in 1815 to the year 1828 The Botanical Register published superb botanical engravings for each issue. All were delicately coloured by hired artists and the larger plates (such as this original example) were folded into the text. The magazine was continued as Edward's Botanical Register from 1828 to 1847. After 1847 the engravings became too expensive to produce and were replaced with lithographs.
The Artists: J. Watts was one of the principal British etchers who produced original etchings and engravings after M. Hart's designs for The Botanical Register and Edward's Botanical Register.
The drawing & coloring are quite stunning. It's a beautiful plate, full of the passion that the early flower painters, botanists & gardeners had for these amazing flowers, many of which were discovered in the pristine reaches of the ever-expanding British Empire & by intrepid explorers of the time.
These gorgeously drawn, engraved & water-colored original prints were presented on their page with consistently balanced, beautiful compositions.
Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved on Copper which was hand-mined, smelted & rolled, printed onto handmade cotton rag paper, inked & colored with hand-ground pigments individually by hand, & they were usually hand sewn into handmade leather-bound books.
Condition: Appears to be in excellent, near pristine condition. The hand-coloring appears to remain sharp & brilliant as the day it was painted. The folds in this one are as-issued & appear in all copies I've seen of this plate as it's a 'fold-out' & much larger than the rest which were octavo-sized bookplates.
These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.
Text Page(s): This one comes with its original text page.
About this gorgeous flower:
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I think this may be not the Haricot, or navy bean, but what's now called Lablab purpureus.
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It's a species of bean in the family Fabaceae, native to sub-Saharan Africa and India, cultivated throughout the tropics for food.
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English language common names include hyacinth bean, lablab-bean bonavist bean/pea, dolichos bean, seim or sem bean, lablab bean, Egyptian kidney bean, Indian bean, bataw and Australian pea.
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Currently, the most common use in this country is as an ornamental crop in the cut flower industry. It is valued for its late summer flowers and colorful, purple peapods.
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If this is the Haricot, The wild ancestor of the haricot bean is native to Central and South America, and was domesticated independently in both Mexico and Peru. Domestication took place over 5,000 years ago, and cultivation had spread throughout the Americas before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century.