Georg Dionys Ehret - The Prince Saxegotha Botanical

Georg Dionysius Ehret produced 30 illustrations for the famous work “The Natural History of Barbados” by the Revd Griffith Hughes, which was published in London in 1750. Ehret may also have produced the engravings, which allowed the illustrations subsequently to be reproduced.

Griffith Hughes was a noted Church of England clergyman and naturalist, baptized in 1707 and dying in approximately 1758. He received an MA from Oxford in 1748 and then relocated to Barbados, where he became Rector of St Lucy’s Parish and produced his noted book, “The Natural History of Barbados”, which was published in London in the same year in which Hughes was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. The small folio work contained many beautiful natural history plates, not all drawn by Ehret, and was subscribed to by the leading naturalists of the day.

All the 12 botanical plates in the book assigned to Ehret (it is also believed that a number of the unsigned plates may be by, or after, Ehret) are dedicated to a different patron, with the engraved dedication to, and arms of, an aristocratic or scholarly patron forming an integral part of the plate.

All 12 feature trees, including two palm trees and portraits of the male and female pawpaw.

Signed and numbered gouttelette print on paper

Paper Size: 20 x 15 ins / 50 x 38 cm

Image Size: 20 x 15 ins / 50 x 38 cm