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Anne Pratt
(1806-1893), one of the best known English botanical illustrators of the Victorian age, managed to make a good living
from her work during her eighty-seven years. She was a prolific author and illustrator and all of her
books
sold well. Her illustrations, although sometimes criticised for lack of botanical detail, show great technical
skill and have now become collector's items.
1
The Field, the Garden and the Woodland; or, Interesting Facts Respecting Flowers and Plants in General, Designed for the Young by Anne Pratt (1847, Third Edition): "One species of ornament, which other writers mention as peculiar to Chinese gardens, seems in laughable accordance with the idea of their taste which we should have formed from viewing the landscapes on their porcelain. About the gardens are placed small pots on the backs of earthenware buffaloes, pigs, castles, and other images, in which grow dwarf trees. Each of these perversions of nature is formed from the branch of a large elm, or some other tree, which, by their peculiar ma-[113]nagement, is made to assume the form and appearance of a very ancient but diminutive tree." 2 |
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1
"Female Botanical Illustrators,"
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/64993-popup.html
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