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The Water-Lily Tribe by Elizabeth Twining 1849

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Start price: £80

Estimated price: £250 - £500

Auction house commission:

This rare hand-coloured lithograph of the Nympheaceae – The Water-Lily Tribe is from Illustrations of the Natural Order of Plants by Elizabeth Twining. Published in London by Joseph Cundall 1849 (Vol I) and Day & Son 1855 (Vol II).

Elizabeth was born in 1805 into the Twinings tea merchant family and she learned art and drawing as part of her education and was inspired by Curtis’s The Botanical Magazine and the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick gardens to draw plants and flowers. Illustrations of the Natural Order of Plants included a total of 160 lithographs in royal folio, reportedly based on observation at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew and at Lexden Park in Colchester.

The hand-coloured lithographic plates are heightened with gum arabic.The fine plates in this work depict plants arranged by botanical families using de Candolle’s classification; where a family is known to include a British member this is included, and each plate includes between two and seven members of each family. Most of her original artwork is now part of the collection of the British Museum.

Size: 13in x19 in (33cm x 48cm)

Condition: The print is in excellent condition – please inspect the image carefully as it is very accurate.