Sydenham Teast Edwards (5 August 1768 – 8 February 1819) was a natural history illustrator. He illustrated plants, birds and importantly published an illustrated book on the breeds of dogs in Britain, ''Cynographia Britannica''. Edwards was born in 1768 in Usk,

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

, the son of Lloyd Pittell Edwards, a schoolmaster and organist; and his wife, Mary Reese, who had been married on 26 September 1765, at

Llantilio Crossenny Llantilio Crossenny ( cy, Llandeilo Gresynni) is a small village and much larger former community, now in the community of Whitecastle, in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, in the United Kingdom. It is situated between the two towns of Abergave ...

Church, and where Sydenham was christened in 1768. Mary Reese was a sister of the Rev. William Reece, the curate of Llantilio Crossenny who had married Ann Mackafee. Their son, Richard Reece was an eminent physician and wrote a number of works on medicine. Young Edwards had a precocious talent for draughtsmanship and when only 11 years old had copied plates from ''

Flora Londinensis ''Flora Londinensis'' is a folio sized book that described the flora found in the London region of the mid 18th century. The ''Flora'' was published by William Curtis in six large volumes. The descriptions of the plants included hand-coloured cop ...

'' for his own enjoyment. A certain Mr. Denman visited

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

in 1779 and saw some of Edwards' work. Denman, being a friend of

William Curtis William Curtis (11 January 1746 – 7 July 1799) was an English botanist and entomologist, who was born at Alton, Hampshire, site of the Curtis Museum. Curtis began as an apothecary, before turning his attention to botany and other natural his ...

, the publisher of botanical works, and founder of the '' Curtis's Botanical Magazine'', spoke to Curtis about the boy. Curtis proceeded to have Edwards trained in both botany and botanical illustration. Edwards produced plates at a prodigious rate: between 1787 and 1815 he produced over 1,700 watercolours for the ''Botanical Magazine'' alone. He illustrated '' Cynographia Britannica'' (1800) (an encyclopaedic compendium of dog breeds in Britain), '' New Botanic Garden'' (1805-7), '' New Flora Britannica'' (1812), and '' The Botanical Register'' (1815-19). Edwards established the latter under his own editorship in 1815 after a disagreement with John Sims, who succeeded Curtis as editor. He also provided drawings for encyclopedias such as ''

Pantologia ''Pantologia'' is an English encyclopedia, published in 12 volumes, 8vo in 1813, with 370 plates (some coloured). Its full title page was ''A New Cyclopedia, comprehending a complete series of Essays, Treatises and Systems, alphabetically arrange ...

'' and ''

Rees's Cyclopædia Rees's ''Cyclopædia'', in full ''The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature'' was an important 19th-century British encyclopaedia edited by Rev. Abraham Rees (1743–1825), a Presbyterian minister and scholar w ...

''. He completed a number of parrot illustrations between 1810 and 1812 which were acquired by Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby. Edwards was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1804. Edwards' work inspired the decoration of ceramics made by a number of major potters of the time, such as Spode. He was buried at

Chelsea Old Church (All Saints) Chelsea Old Church, also known as All Saints, is an Anglican church, on Old Church Street, Chelsea, London SW3, England, near Albert Bridge. It is the church for a parish in the Diocese of London, part of the Church of England. Inside the Gra ...

, London. There is confusion over the spelling of his middle name. He was baptised Sydenham Edwards, but by the 1790s adopted the middle name 'Teak' on some signatures of his drawings. His death certificate has this as 'Teaste', whereas his tombstone, in Chelsea Old Church, it was 'Teast'. A memorial in the church reads, "''As a faithful delineator of nature, few equalled, none excelled.''" The tombstone was destroyed by bombings in World War II, but has been replaced. Image:Sydenham Edwards03.jpg Image:Sydenham Edwards04.jpg Image:Sydenham Edwards66.jpg Image:Sydenham Edwards57.jpg Image:The Botanical Magazine, Plate 167 (Volume 5, 1792).png

References

Bibliography

External links

Biography of Curtis and contemporariesView digitized titles by Sydenham Edwards in ''Botanicus.org''Works in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Sydenham 1768 births 1819 deaths Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Scientific illustrators Burials at Chelsea Old Church