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C1820
(1868)
Rafflesia Arnoldi – Collection of 11 engravings
Artist:
Franz Andreas Bauer (1758 - 1840)
The collection of 11 engravings of the amazing Corpse flower which produces the largest individual flower on earth, growing up to a metre in diameter. These engravings which were reissued in 1868 from the original copper engravings (1820) and given … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
Rafflesia Arnoldi – Collection of 11 engravings
Date:
C1820
(1868)
Artist:
Franz Andreas Bauer (1758 - 1840)
Condition:
In good condition
Technique:
Copper engraving.
Image Size:
290mm
x 240mm
Paper Size:
365mm
x 265mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1868
Description:
The collection of 11 engravings of the amazing Corpse flower which produces the largest individual flower on earth, growing up to a metre in diameter.
These engravings which were reissued in 1868 from the original copper engravings (1820) and given to subscribers of the Ray Society. Robert Brown the naturalist on the Flinders expedition had presented to the Linnean Society of London An Account of a new Genus of Plants, named Rafflesia.
The first botanist to find a specimen of a Rafflesia was the French explorer Louis Auguste Deschamps (1765-1842). He was a member of a French scientific expedition to Asia and the Pacific. During the expedition he spent three years on Java, where in 1797 he collected a specimen of what is now known as R. patma. During the return voyage in 1798, his ship was taken by the British, with whom France was at war, and all his papers and notes were confiscated. They did not see the light of day until 1954 when they were rediscovered in the Natural History Museum, London. William Jack (1795-1822) who was Arnold’s successor in Sumatra, being aware that Deschamps, despite his loss of notes, could formally publish a name for the newly discovered genus at any moment, rushed to draft a description to ensure the credit went to a British botanist. This draft description was held in readiness, in case there was word that the French were about to publish, whilst waiting for the British Museum to produce a better-prepared version. The generic name, Rafflesia (given in honour of Sir Raffles), proposed by Brown (who had originally wanted to call it Arnoldii) after Joseph Arnold, was validated by S.F. Gray in his report of the June 1820 meeting of the Linnean Society of London, as published in the Annals of Philosophy in September that year. While the species Rafflesia arnoldii was officially described for the first time in 1821 by Brown, so that Arnold was commemorated after all.
References Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
Modern binomial name Rafflesia arnoldii
Common name Corpse flower
First described Robert Brown 1820
Distribution Borneo & Sumatra.
From Brown / Ray Society, The Miscellaneous Botanical Works 1868
Biography:
Franz Andreas Bauer (1758-1840)
Franz Bauer was the older brother of Ferdinand Bauer both became famour botanical artists.
Franz’s initial involvement with botanical art was through the illustration of plants for the Professor of botany and director of the botanic garden of the University of Vienna. Franz illustrated works by the Baron Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin and his son Baron Joseph Franz at the Schnbrunn Imperial Gardens. In 1788 he went to England and settled at Kew where he was to remain for the rest of his life.
Sir Joseph Banks employed Franz as a botanical artist at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. He was known by the title ‘Botanick Painter to His Majesty’ and was paid an income of 300. For 40 years, Bauer illustrated the newly discovered plants from around the world that were introduced to England via Kew, where they were grown and scientific studied.
He also worked as an illustrator contributing paintings for a number of botanical books,was elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society in 1804 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821.
