Catalog Archive
Auction 123, Lot 790

"[Lot of 2 - Flowers]", Miller, Philip

Subject: Botanicals

Period: 1756 (dated)

Publication: Figures of the most Beautiful, Useful and Uncommon Plants…

Color: Hand Color

Size:
7.75 x 13 inches
19.7 x 33 cm
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Pair of lovely hand colored engravings from this scarce and important English botanical book. Scottish botanist Philip Miller (1691-1771) was curator at the Chelsea Physic Garden - the nucleus of the Royal Botanic Gardens. Miller employed the best botanical artists and engravers of the day to provide these illustrations. By the time Miller died, he had named more than five thousand species under cultivation. He was also the first to conduct experiments showing that insects aid in flower pollination. Included in this lot are Plate CXVI Cydonia (quince) and Plate LXXVI Calendula and Aster.

References:

Condition: B+

Both with attractive original color on sound sheets. The Cydonia sheet has a few spots of faint foxing.

Estimate: $250 - $350

Sold for: $140

Closed on 2/20/2008

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