Ehret & Haid London Botanical Illustrations

The antique botanical prints in this issue are from Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini (1750 - 1773). They represent the rare and collectible plants in London during the mid-century. The ten volumes were made possible by Christoph Jacob Trew (1695-1769), who had a passion for botany and edited the project, Johann Jacob Haid (1704-1767), who was the engraver and painter, and Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770), who is the illustrator.

Georg Dionysius Ehret began his carrier as a gardener but left that post to seek a carrier as a botanical illustrator. He found work but also created botanical plates in his spare time. These were first presented to Christoph Jacob Trew through Johann Ambrosius Beurer. Trew found a purchaser for the plates, Johann Wilhelm Widmann, and commissioned 80 large plates from Ehret. Trew was a lifelong collector of Ehret’s works. Additional biographical information about Georg Dionysius Ehret can be found on the CTG Publishing website.

“...[I] travelled in this dangerous war-time supplied with the best passports. I travelled quite alone, with my small package on my back, and feared nothing.” Georg Dionysius Ehret