19th Century Jane Louden Hand Colored Botanical Print in Gilt Frame

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This 19th century hand-colored print is a gorgeous work of art and fascinating piece of history. A single plate from … Read more This 19th century hand-colored print is a gorgeous work of art and fascinating piece of history. A single plate from the 1849 edition of a celebrated botanical series by pioneering feminist illustrator and author, Jane Webb Louden.

It features vibrant period watercolor highlights over fine line lithography by prominent illustrated book publisher William S. Orr & Co. in 1849. Several small, unique hand painted details that do not exist in contemporary reproductions are pictured.

In a gilt wood frame with carved floral details. Properly protected in museum glass as well as archival quality backing and matting. In stunning condition with only a few minuscule flecks of foxing.

The history:

Jane Webb Louden was a pioneer in gothic horror and the popularization of gardening and is a fascinating but undersung historical figure. Her 1827 debut novel The Mummy!: A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century was a formative science fiction novel that predated the existence of that genre’s name. She was the first English speaking novelist to write about a mummy rising from the dead and introduced the world to the concept of mummies as reanimated monsters.

The piece was also strikingly prescient of a future she would not live to see. It predicted several inventions and cultural events. Webb published her gothic novel in her early 20s and did so anonymously in an effort to avoid sexist judgement of the piece.

John C Loudon, a horticulturalist and author read the novel and wrote a glowing review. He sought a meeting with the author expecting to meet an established male writer. When the young Jane arrived to meet John he was pleasantly surprised and immediately smitten.

Jane developed an interest in John’s field after marrying him and shifted to botanical writing and they went on to work together. The Loudens believed gardens themselves were works of art. At the time flora was predominantly viewed as either a subject in art or a scientific study.

Jane realized there was a major gap in the market for easy to understand gardening manuals. She became a self taught, gifted botanical illustrator and pioneer in the popularization of horticulture by creating a series of gardening manuals that were accessible to working class women with an interest in flora. These manuals lead to a boom in hobbyist ornamental gardening in every day homes that is commonplace today but was a luxury before Louden made that knowledge more widely accessible.   

Her most popular publications were the Ladies’ Flower-Garden series. This is plate 50 from The Ladies' Flower-Garden of Ornamental Perennials. London: William S. Orr & Co., [1849] See less