Botanical, Art, Catesby, Mahogany Tree, Camellia, Pair of Framed Antique Prints, London, 1815-16

Description

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has placed scans of Catesby’s plates and the related texts online (see References below). Catesby wrote the following description of the mahogany tree to accompany the print (bearing his original punctuation, spelling and capitalization):

These Trees grow to a great Height, and are usually four Foot Diameter; the Bark is of a brown Colour, the Leaves are pinnated, growing by Pairs on Mender Stalks, the Ribs of the Leaves (like those of the Talia) run on one Side, dividing the Leaf unequally. Not having an Opportunity of seeing its Flowers in their perfect State, I was necessitated to figure the best Fragment of it I could find, which was withered and imperfect, but by spreading the Petals I could distinguish the little Flowers to be pentapetalous, as represented by a Sprig at N°1. The curious Structure of the Seed-Vessel is thus: The whole Fruit before the Parts are divided, is a very hard smooth Cone, in Size and Form of a Goose’s Egg, growing erect on a Stalk four or five Inches long: As this Fruit grows ripe it begins to open, and separate into five equal Parts, each consisting of an hard Shell, near half an Inch thick, lined within by a thin Skin or Membrane, which immediately encloses the Seeds; the Seeds lie disposed in the Manner of those of an Apocynum; they are winged, and are attached to the hollow Sides of an hard pentagonal Core, which forms the Middle of the Cone: When the Shell falls off, the Seeds are left exposed to the Wind, and are soon dissipated by it, leaving the Core standing, which continues so many Months after. The Excellency of this Wood for all Domestick Uses is now sufficiently known in England: And at the Bahama Islands, and other Countries, where it grows naturally, it is in no less Esteem for Ship-building, having Properties for that Use excelling Oak, and all other Wood, viz. Durableness, resisting Gunshots, and burying the Shot without Splintering.

No one would imagine, that Trees of this Magnitude should grow on solid Rocks, and that these Rocks should afford sufficient Nutriment to raise and increase the Trunks of them to the Thickness of four Feet or more in Diameter; but so it is, and the Manner of their Rise and Progress I have observed as follows: The Seeds being winged are dispersed on the Surface of the Ground, some falling into the Chinks of the Rocks, and strike Root, if the Fibres find Resistance from the Hardness of the Rock, they creep out on the Surface of it, and seek another Chink, into which they creep, and swell to such a Size and Strength, that at length the Rock breaks, and is forced to admit of the Roots deeper Penetration, and with this little Nutriment the Tree increases to a stupendious Size in a few Years, it being a quick Grower.

He also describes the flowers and other organisms in the print titled Steuartia:

Steuartia. This Shrub rises from the ground, with several stiff inflexible stems, to an ordinary height. The leaves are serrated, and grow alternately, resembling those of the Syringa. The flower resembles that of a single Rose, consisting of five white concave petals, with a pointel rising from a pale green ovarium, surrounded by many purple flamina, with bluish apices. It is remarkable, that one particular petal in every flower is stained with a faint greenish yellow. The calix is divided into five segments. The Capsula has a hairy roughness on the outside, is of a conic form, and when ripe splits open and discloses five membranous cells, every one of which contains a single oblong brown shining seed. For this elegant Plant I am obliged to my good friend Mr. Clayton, who sent it me from Virginia, and three months after its arrival it blossom’d in my garden at Fulbam in May 1742.

Regulus Cristatus. Le Roitelet hupé. As this is an English as well as an American Bird, I shall only observe, that by comparing this American one with the description of Mr. Willughby’s European one, they agreed in every particular, and therefore I prefer to his Ornithology, p. 227. of the English Edition. 

This Bird, which is the least of all European Birds, is likewise an inhabitant in the parallel latitudes of the Old and New World. 

In Winter sun-shine days, they are wont to associate with other Creepers, particularly the Certhia, the Sitta, the Parus-ater, the Parus Caudata, and other Tit-mice, ranging the woods together from tree to tree, as if they were all of one brood, running up and down the bark of lofty oaks, from the crevices of which they collect their food, which are Insects lodged in their Winter-dormitories, in a torpid state. In like manner the same little Birds feed in America, frequenting Juniper, Fir, and Pine-trees, this repeating Zilzilperle, as Gesner relates his Parus Sylvaticus to do.

Vespa Ichneumon. La Guêpe Ichneumon. This Wasp is a little above an inch long. The wings of a yellowish brown colour. The head, thorax, and abdomen of a very dark brown, almost black; the whole having some spots of yellow. It had six yellowish legs. The abdomen was oval, joined to the thorax by a small fistula of almost half an inch long.

The print is from Mark Catesby’s The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Catesby’s work was a formative and important series of 220 natural history prints of birds, animals, fish and plants native to the southeast United States and the Bahamas. The first edition of Catesby’s work contained 220 fine hand-colored, folio size plates after his natural history paintings, many of which he etched himself, together with descriptions in English and French (London: 1731-43). George Edwards (1694-1773) revised and reissued both volumes as the second edition (London, 1751-55). The publisher Benjamin White reissued Edward’s edition, adding Linnaean names to all Catesby’s plants and animals as the third edition (1771-75). Also, the third edition was reissued circa 1815-1816. This particular example of the print can be identified as third edition, reissued c 1815-16, the Mahogony Tree with J. Whatman 1815 watermark.

Mark Catesby’s important work was the first comprehensive publication on the natural history of the New World.  Catesby trained principally as a botanist in England. Beginning in 1712, he spent seven years in Virginia, amassing collections of plant and animal specimens, which he shipped back to wealthy patrons in England. With their encouragement, he undertook a comprehensive color plate study, returning to North America for an extended stay in 1722. He learned the art of print etching so he could control the quality of the final product. The first edition of his Natural History was published in London, in parts, from 1731 to 43. In that seminal work, his depictions of birds, which comprise 109 of the 220 illustrations, contributed to the development of scientific color-plate book ornithological illustration having several innovative qualities: the placement of many of the birds in natural environments and/or with local plant life; precise scientific naturalism; and the folio format. Other illustrations included fish, reptiles, mammals as well as botanical illustrations of native plants, including their flowers and fruit. In the 18th century and into the first half of the 19th century, Catesby’s works remained a definitive source for information about New World birds, consulted such notable persons as Audubon, Thomas Jefferson and Lewis and Clark in the United States, and Linnaeus in Europe.

Condition: Prints very good with only light remaining toning and wear. Custom burlwood frames, c. 1990-2000, very good with light handling and wear.

References:

Catesby, Mark. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands… Online: Biodiversity Heritage Library. Vol. 2, 81 and Appendix, p. 13. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/126154#page/253/mode/1up and https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/126154#page/349/mode/1up (24 February 2022).

Stewart, Doug. “Mark Catesby.” Smithsonian Magazine. August 31, 1997. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/mark-catesby-51795143/ (7 April 2020).