Lot 48
Botanical watercolours on vellum - Australia
Rare Books, Maps and Manuscripts
Auction: 29 August 2012 at 12:00 BST
Description
18 watercolours of plants and feathers on vellum, five captioned "Norfolk Island", none with initials or artist's name, c. 1800; 11, also on vellum, with initials U.C.D. by Ursula Chalmers Davidson, executed in 1983, with 3 further botanical watercolours on vellum, executed in 1992, loosely inserted, by Margaret Stones, blue morocco gilt binding of c. 1830, lettered in gilt "Signals" on spine, g.e., clasps
Footnote
Provenance: Viscount Strathallan, Stobhall, Perthshire
Note: One specimen is captioned "Glycine Bimaculata in Curtis's Magazine. Norfolk Island". Interestingly Curtis states "Of the many plants which have been raised from Botany Bay seeds, this is one of the first which flowered in this country..."
Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. It was colonised by Britain as part of its settlement in Australia in 1788. It then served as a convict penal settlement until 1794, when it was abandoned until 1856.