This is a fine run of the volumes 1-46 (in 25 books) of the famous work by William Curtis, the longest running botanical periodical in the world. It is considered the most comprehensive collection of plant images ever created.
The present volumes 1-46 contain 2107 detailed copper engraved tables of plants, originally hand-coloured in splendid luminous colours. 120 of the tables are fold-outs.
The quality, scarcity and valuableness of the images as well as the botanical information on the plants shown have made the work an important source of knowledge and a treasured collector’s object to scientists, gardeners and plant enthusiasts.
In addition to the 25 present books there is a volume of 1805 including an index of all plants contained in the first 20 volumes of the work. At the beginning of this index volume there is a nice engraved portrait of the author.
Most of the images were created after drawings by James Sowerby (1757 – 1822) and Syndenham T. Edwards (1768 – 1819). The engraver of most of the tables was Franciscus Sansom (1780-1810).
Each image is accompanied by a text with the Latin and English name of the plant shown, its place in the Linnaean classification as well as with information on place of origin, time of bloom and advice on cultivation.
Each volume has a title page featuring a nice poem or verse on plants. At the title page of volume I a verse of Francis Bacon is to be read: “A Garden is the purest of human Pleasures.“
All volumes have got nice, marmorate red coloured edges.
Volumes 1 and 3-6 in the final edition noted by Stafleu/C. (1290), volumes 2 and 7-46 from the original edition.
The history of Curtis's Botanical Magazine
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine is an extraordinary work in many respects. It is the longest running botanical periodical in the world. Moreover it is the most comprehensive collection of plant images ever created. The magazine is published since 1787 up to today almost without interruption. In 220 years of its existence the magazine published more than 10,000 botanical images in over 200 volumes.
The worldwide reputation of the magazine is mainly based on the wonderful plant figures. Even after more than 200 years they are still fascinating botanists, gardeners and plant enthusiasts.
Up to 1845 all images had been engraved in copper. Later they had been lithographed (between 1847 and 1948). Up to 1848 each printing plate was coloured and copied by hand. From 1848 on the handwork was replaced by colour printing. Since 1959 on the images are photographs.
James Sowerby (1757 – 1822) was an artist who dominated the early years of the magazine. He was author and illustrator of about 2500 plants in the periodical.
Syndenham T. Edwards (1768 – 1819) is considered the first employee fully working for the magazine. Curtis employed him as apprentice teaching him botany and botanical drawing. Working for the magazine for about 27 years, Edwards drew more than 1700 images of plants.
Curtis insisted on illustrations that were generally drawn after a living plant and that were coloured as near to nature as possible. Freedom of art was not given to his artists. He expected scientific work with meticulousness.
In the preface of the first edition the authors describes his wish to create a work, in which Botany and Gardening…might happily be combined and to render Botany a lasting source of rational amusement, and public utility.
Curtis died in 1799 when his Magazine had reached volume 13. His friend John Sims (1749 – 1831), a botanist and physician, became the new publisher.
From 1826 on, William James Hooker (1785 – 1865) and later his son Joseph Dalton Hooker continued to publish the famous periodical.
In the course of its existance, the magazine got several times into economical difficulties. In 1921 it was saved from ruin when J. Elwesalle bought all rights of publication on behalf of the Royal Horticultural Society. During World War II and the first 2 years after from 1939 to 1947, the magazine could not be published.
In 1984 the name was changed to The Kew Magazine. The content of the magazine considerably changed. In addition to the descriptions and images of plants there were also included articles and other material like maps of habitats.
In 1995 the magazine returned to its original name The Curtis’s Botanical Magazine.
Today the magazine is published quarterly at Blackwell Publishing Oxford.
