Manuscripts

Botanical album

Description: The paintings listed below were identified both by the dealer who sold this album to the Huntington, as well as briefly by three of the Huntington's botanical curators. A number of the identifications are necessarily speculative and might prove incorrect or warrant greater details to identify some of the flowers to the specific level.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1765-1767
Call number: mssHM 84101
Creator: Fane, Elizabeth Parker (1751-1829)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased for the Huntington from Maggs Bros. Ltd., by the Library Collectors' Council, March 2022. The botanical album has been held in the library at Shirburn Castle since it was created; it was lastly owned by the 9th Earl of Macclesfield.
Restrictions: RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time. Please view digital surrogate.

Botanical album

Manuscripts

The paintings listed below were identified both by the dealer who sold this album to the Huntington, as well as briefly by three of the Huntington's botanical curators. A number of the identifications are necessarily speculative and might prove incorrect or warrant greater details to identify some of the flowers to the specific level.

mssHM 84100

Image not available

"Periwinkle with a double flower"

Manuscripts

Huntington botanic curators note it's usually more of a blue color; this is a cultivated selection.

mssHM 84101

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

Image not available

[Rowan berries. Sorbus genus]

Manuscripts

mssHM 84101

Image not available

[Red rose]

Manuscripts

mssHM 84101

Image not available

[A plant in the verbascum genus. Mockmullen?]

Manuscripts

mssHM 84101

Botanical album

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Botanical album

"Periwinkle with a double flower"

Lady Elizabeth Parker Fane botanical album 1765-1767

[Rowan berries. Sorbus genus]

[Red rose]

[A plant in the verbascum genus. Mockmullen?]