Botanical Illustrations

Many people probably think about our expansive gardens when they hear of The Huntington’s flora but plants also make up an important part of the art and library collections in the form of botanical illustrations. Beautiful and educational, these colorful depictions of plants ranging from the common to the exotic are rendered in such incredible details that you can almost feel the leaf textures. Studying these illustrations can help us perceive the natural world in the same inspiring way their creators once did and allow us to better appreciate the gardens we see.

Art Museum

Library

Lady Elizabeth Parker Fane botanical album 1765-1767

Manuscripts

A botanical album created by Lady Elizabeth Parker Fane; she started painting the illustrations in this album in 1765 which means she was just 14 years old when she began. Flower painting had become a fashionable occupation for the wives and daughters of the great houses of England and Elizabeth Parker Fane achieved exceptional ability under the tutelage of Georg Ehret. The album contains 25 watercolor and gouache paintings on parchment; depicted are both sides of the plant's leaves and also shown are more than one reproductive stage for each specimen: with the early formation of the blossom, the growing petals, and the full expression of the flower. The images in the album depict numerous plant specimens, sometimes with butterflies and other insects, most likely local to the Macclesfield estate, Shirburn Castle, in Oxfordshire. Only a small number of the paintings contain titles, though a few are dated by the artist. The 25 paintings are laid into the volume and the remaining pages are blank. The album is bound in a contemporary, richly gilt morocco wallet binding, with a green silk chemise to wrap top and lower edges; the binding was done by an unidentified binder. The album has a lock and key fastening, though the lock has been deactivated, the key is kept with the companion volume mssHM 84100.

mssHM 84101

Mary Parker, Countess of Macclesfield, botanical album, 1756-1767

Manuscripts

A botanical album created by Mary Parker, Countess of Macclesfield; she started the album in 1756 when she was 30 years of age. Flower painting had become a fashionable occupation for the wives and daughters of the great houses of England and Mary Parker achieved exceptional ability under the tutelage of Georg Ehret. The album contains 48 watercolor and gouache paintings on parchment; depicted are both sides of the plant's leaves and also shown are more than one reproductive stage for each specimen: with the early formation of the blossom, the growing petals, and the full expression of the flower. The images in the album depict numerous plant specimens, sometimes with butterflies and other insects, most likely local to the Macclesfield estate, Shirburn Castle, in Oxfordshire. Many of the illustrations are identified by names predating Carl Linnaeus' binomial plant nomenclature in his "Species Plantarum" (1753), while other notations on the illustrations include Linnaeus' names. The album is bound in a contemporary, richly gilt morocco wallet binding, with interior green silk ties; the binding is likely by Richard Montagu. The pages in the album are marked with the Macclesfield armorial blind stamp. It has a lock and key fastening, and while the original key is present, the lock has been deactivated by a professional restorer, please do not attempt to use the key; also present is a red velvet bookmark.