Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae frontispiece

''Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae'' is an 1813 publication by the

botanical illustrator Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, color, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical ...

Ferdinand Bauer Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (20 January 1760 – 17 March 1826) was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia. Biography Early life and career Bauer was born in Feldsberg in 1760, the youngest son of ...

. Bauer was scientific illustrator on board during

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

' exploration of Australia, and as such he worked closely with the expedition's naturalist, Robert Brown. When these men returned to England in 1805, they brought with them thousands of specimens and hundreds of sketches. Initially, they planned to publish a large-scale work, to be entitled ''Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae'', but this venture failed, and Brown decided to publish his scientific descriptions separately, in ''

Transactions of the Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

'', and later his own ''

Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen ''Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen'' (Prodromus of the Flora of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land) is a flora of Australia written by botanist Robert Brown and published in 1810. Often referred to as ''Prodromus Flora Novae ...

''. Bauer then undertook to publish a lesser work himself, with Brown providing text limited to a brief preface and some captioning. Unusually, Bauer not only did all the illustrations, but also engraved the printing plates and hand-coloured the illustrations. It was exceedingly unusual for a single artist to perform all three roles; it is said that Bauer did the engraving himself because he could not find a good engraver, and previous works of his were disappointing because of incompetent engraving. Three issues of ''Illustrationes florae Novae Hollandiae'' were published, all in 1813. These three issues totalled fifteen plates, and a sixteenth was bound into some copies. Publication then ceased, probably because the venture was a financial failure. It is estimated that less than fifty copies of the work were sold, and some of these were uncoloured. It is therefore now an extremely rare book. In 1997, a copy was sold at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

for $57,000. Banksia coccinea (Illustrationes Florae Novae Hollandiae plate 3).jpg, Plate III: ''

Banksia coccinea ''Banksia coccinea'', commonly known as the scarlet banksia, waratah banksia or Albany banksia, is an erect shrub or small tree in the family Proteaceae. Its distribution in the wild is along the south west coast of Western Australia, from Denm ...

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1813 non-fiction books Books about Australian natural history Botanical art Botany books Botany in Australia Florae (publication)