Geranium Robertianum, Robert Herb

William Curtis, Antique Botanical Print, Flora Londinensis, 1777

round 25 x 25cm coloured etching on robust hand laid paper

Unique, hand-made 42,5 x 42,5cm wooden frame, refined with real gold leaves on red grained poliment, with passe-partout, behind glass

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William Curtis (1746-1799) was Director of the Society of Apothecaries at the Chelsea Physic Garden and a botanist with a broad knowledge of exotic species. Following Flora Londinensis he went on to publish the Botanical Magazine, which continued for over 160 years. The Botanical Magazine, with its showy exotic species brought Curtis the financial success that Flora Londinensis with its common wayside British plants never achieved.