Field Knautia by Anne Pratt, circa 1852.
Field Knautia is the perennial plant Knautia arvensis, commonly referred to as field scabious. It grows best in grassy areas with dry soil and flowers between the months of July and September. Linnaeus named the species after seventeenth century Drs. Christoph and Christian Knaut for their contributions to botany. Plants of the scabious species were named such for their use in treating skin conditions, such as scabies and sores caused by the Bubonic Plague.
The artist, Anne Pratt (1806-1893), was a self taught illustrator and one of the best known botanical illustrators of the Victorian era. She is credited as having popularized botany. Pratt wrote more than twenty books on the subject, each published with detailed chromolithographs. Field Knautia is from her book Wild Flowers, published in 1852.
Chromolithography was the most successful color printing method of the nineteenth century. It involved drawing the image onto a stone or zinc plate with crayon and fixing the image with a gum arabic and nitric acid solution, which could then be inked with oil paint and run through a printing press. Each color required its own plate and had to be applied separately. Some considered the process too mechanical to be an art form, saying that it lacked the same level of authenticity as painting. It was later replaced by cheaper methods of printing.
Plate size: 4" x 2.5"
Sheet size: 5.5" x 4"
Condition: Slight age toning, otherwise very fine antiquarian condition.
