Potted Histories. An Artistic Voyage Through Plant Discovery

Published by Scriptum Editions, 2004 & The British Museum, hardcover, illustrated, 336 pages, condition: very good.

 Potted histories is a natural history art-book, large in size and weight and lavishly filled with colour illustrations, intended for the general reader or lover of botanical art. Reproducing more than two hundred works, the vast majority original paintings in watercolour, from the Botany Library, The Natural History Museum, London. The quality of reproduction is excellent. Unusually the paintings are not arranged by artist or era, but are grouped in botanical order: for example there are chapters about roses, cacti and succulents, magnolias and grasses and sedges. The chapter on palms also includes cycads, so the arrangement is not strictly scientifi c. Another unusual (and welcome) aspect of this book is the clustering at the end of each chapter of postage-stamp reproductions showing each painting in its entirety with its dimensions, media, artists name, date, scientifi c name and, alongside, a short commentary about the plant or the painting.

As far as the main text is concerned, it takes the form of readable narrative rather than academic commentary; the pictures are, as in all such books, paramount. Dr Knapp explains that the book is a voyage through the history of my science taxonomy using plant paintings made over the centuries as the vehicle, so it is mainly about exploration and plant-collecting (as the subtitle indicates). Brief biographies (by Judith Magee) of the artists are in an appendix.