A collection of 38 flower drawings by botanical artist Simon Taylor that were vital to the development of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London are at risk of leaving Britain, officials said. Photo courtesy of Britain’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport
July 14 (UPI) — A collection of 38 flower drawings by botanical artist Simon Taylor that were vital to the development of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London are at risk of leaving Britain, officials said.
Britain’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport said in a news release officials are seeking a domestic buyer for the drawings, valued at around $23,165. Stephen Parkinson, Britain’s arts and heritage minister, has placed an export bar on the drawings because of their academic and cultural value.
The drawings are all watercolor on vellum and found in one folio with dimensions a little under 18 by 24 inches. The pages are unsigned and undated but contain the Latin binomial names of the plant subjects in ink. They were part of a now dispersed collection of 15 volumes with nearly 700 paintings.
Sotheby’s described the folio as having “occasional light spotting, a few sheets of vellum coming loose from paper backing, small scratches to covers, some wear and scuffs to spine.”
Still, they have been called “highly significant” in helping John Stuart, King George III‘s tutor and later prime minister of Great Britain, develop Kew Gardens. They provide a record of the plants in the gardens before the involvement of Joseph Banks, the first unofficial director of the gardens.
“Very little survives to show what plants were originally to be found in the Gardens,” said Peter Barber, a member of the committee that reviewed the potential export of the documents.
“An opportunity has now arisen to save some precious depictions of these plants for the nation.”
The provenance of how the drawings changed hands over time is listed for interested buyers.
“Taylor’s 38 finely executed watercolors, commissioned by Lord Bute, are much more than merely pretty pictures,” Barber said.
“They have the potential to add significantly to our knowledge of Kew in its earliest days. I hope they can find a home in this country where they can most easily and appropriately be studied and enjoyed, and perhaps be joined in the future by more volumes, or at least watercolors, as they emerge.”
