Priscilla Susan Bury (British, 1799–1872)
Fine Original Album of Botanical
Watercolors. [1836-1840]
4to., (10 4/8 x 8 4/8 in).

26 FINE original botanical watercolors, each signed and dated by the artist, or otherwise inscribed by her, and 9 engraved proof plates with original hand-color from the “Botanist”. Original half maroon cloth, marbled boards, gilt, all edges gilt (extremities worn, binding detached).

Provenance: Fine gift inscription from the artist to her son William Bury on the verso
of the front free endpaper dated May 1871, further inscribed by the artist on the recto of the first blank..

The fine watercolors annotated as having been collected from her family homes of Fairfield, Llanbedr Hall, Plas – y –Nant, and the more illustrious gardens of Woburn Abbey, Skirving Walton, and the Liverpool Botanical Garden are of “Rhododen Vislaeum”, “Alstrameria Psittacina”, honeysuckle, hybrid azalea, “Maxillaria Deppi”, “Cyrtanthus Angustifolia”, “Benthamia Fragiferum and Septosiphons”, “Cattleya Guttata var Russeliana” a specimen collected by the then Duke of Bedford in Rio de Janeiro and named for him, “Gladiolus Cardinalis”, “Gaillardia Picta”, “Anomatheca Cruenta”, “Salpiglossis Barclayana”, “Hybrid Gloxinia Walton”, “Schizanthus Grahamii”, a posy of poppies, “Collinsia Bicolor”, “Eschscholzia Californica & Anagallis Indica”, “Calceolaria Milo”, “Maxillaria Viridis”, “E choltzia Crocea”, “Gesneria Rupestris”, “Coreopsis Athosanguinea”, “Delphinium Divaricatum”, “Gilia Tricolor”, “Azalia Indica”, pansies,“Capparis Spinosa” (tippedin). These are followed by 9 “Proof plates from some of Mrs. Edward Bury’s Drawings for the Botanist” June 1839, engraved and hand-colored. Bury, nee Falkner was the daughter of a wealthy Liverpool trader, and she began drawing plants raised in the greenhouses of her family home, Fairfield just outside Liverpool. In 1831 she published her famous collection of watercolors of lilies as “A Selection of Hexandrian Plants”, the plates for which were engraved by the celebrated Robert Havell. The eight plates Bury later contributed to Maund and Henslow’s “The Botanist” are tipped-in to the end of this beautiful album.

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or by email at loricohen@aradergalleries.com