1808 CURTIS Botanical CYMBIDIUM HYACINTHINUM Orchid (CB8/90)

CURTIS, William

About this Item

An original antique engraving published for CURTISS BOTANICAL MAGAZINE; OR FLOWER-GARDEN DISPLAYED in 1808. Original hand colour and comes with original text page. Overall size approx 13.3cm x 22.5cm. Generally fine condition - see scan for details.William Curtis (11 January 1746 andndash; 7 July 1799) was an English botanist and entomologist who was born in Alton, Hampshire, site of the Curtis Museum. Curtis began as an apothecary, before turning his attention to botany and other natural history. The publications he prepared 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, 1777andndash;1798), a 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. (William Kilburn is often erroneously cited as having contributed plates to Curtiss Botanical Magazine. Though he did provide illustrations to Flora Londinensis, his association with Curtis seems to have ended by 1777, 10 years before the first publication of the Botanical Magazine) . 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, Curtiss Botanical Magazine. He was buried in the churchyard at St. Marys Church, Battersea where he is commemorated in a stained glass window, as many of his samples were collected from the churchyard there. His headstone, now lost, had the epitaph While living herbs shall spring profusely wild, or gardens cherish all thats blithe and gay, So long thy works shall please, dear Natures child, So long thy memry suffer no decay.

Seller Inventory # CB8-90-6087608

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 1808 CURTIS Botanical CYMBIDIUM HYACINTHINUM Orchid (CB8/90)