The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, And Ferns Of Great Britain And Their Allies The Club Mosses, Pepperworths And Horsetails

Stock No. 20118

Authors: Anne, PRATT (1806-93) | Edward, STEP (edited by)

London: Frederick Warne, 1899

New edition, in four volumes, wholly revised by Edward Step. Royal 8vo (10 x 6.5 ins); pp. xiv, (1), 269; xii, 279; xi, 258; xi, 213. 319 coloured plates and 5 uncoloured plates in total, including the frontispieces (with tissue-guards). Original decorative Art Nouveau cloth, gilt title lettering to front and spines, top edges gilt. Ex.libris Violet Ormonde Matthews with ink inscription dated 1899 to front of vol I. Scattered spots of foxing not affecting the plates. Edges of spines and corner tips lightly rubbed. An excellent set of one of the most charming illustrated British flower books. With the bookplate of Robert Duncan in each vol.

A bright set of the The Flowering Plants of Great Britain, Pratt's major work and considered a cornerstone of botanical illustration and study. Superbly illustrated with 319 Coloured Plates figuring upwards of 1500 species. This edition was thoroughly revised upon scientific lines by Edward Step, bringing it into line with the science of the day, forty years after it was first issued. The original six volume project covered more than 1500 species, with 320 illustrated colour plates, published over a decade, between 1855 and 1873. Anne Pratt was one of the best known English botanical illustrators of the Victorian age. As a consequence of her poor health she was excluded from school sports and instead encouraged to occupy herself by drawing. She was educated at Eastgate House, Rochester, Kent, and introduced to botany by Dr. Dods, a family friend. She moved to Brixton, London, in 1826, where she developed her career as an illustrator, before settling in Dover in 1849, and in East Grinstead in 1866, where she married John Pearless, with whom she subsequently settled at Redhill. She died in Shepherd's Bush, London.