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THORNTON, Robert John (circa 1768-1837). - Peter HENDERSON
The Queen
London: Feb. 1st., 1804. Hand-coloured and colour printed in stipple and line engraving by Cooper. Sheet size: 22 1/2 x 17 7/8 inches.
The most strikingly beautiful flower plates ever to be printed in England.
"This striking and distinctive plant, called by Thornton the `Queen' in this plate, and later the `Queen Flower', but more usually known as the `Bird of Paradise Flower' from a fanciful resemblance to that bird, is a native of South Africa, and one the most colourful plants of the showy flora of that country. It was introduced by Sir Joseph Banks, friend of the King, and de facto Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, with some panache in the 1780s and named Strelitzia reginae in honour of Charlotte, George III's Queen, who was a Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. It was almost certainly sent to Banks by Francis Masson, the first official Kew plant collector, who spent thee years in South Africa in the mid-1770s.. The Srelitzia attracted great attention in this country when it first appeared because of its colourful and bizarrely-shaped blooms, quite unlike anything else known at that time, and even today those who see it in flower for the first time are intrigued by it." (Ronald King. The Temple of Flora by Robert Thornton. 1981, p.68).
Thornton's Temple of Flora is the greatest English colour-plate flower book. "...[Thornton] inherited a competent fortune and trained as a doctor. He appears to have had considerable success in practice and was appointed both physician to the Marylebone Dispensary and lecturer in medical botany at Guy's and St. Thomas's hospitals. But quite early in his career he embarked on his... great work. What Redouté produced under the patronage of L'Héritier, Marie Antoinette, the Empress Josephine, Charles X and the Duchesse de Berry, Thornton set out to do alone... Numerous important artists were engaged... twenty-eight paintings of flowers commissioned from Abraham Pether, known as `Moonlight Pether', Philip Reinagle, ... Sydenham Edwards, and Peter Henderson... The result... involved Thornton in desperate financial straits.... In an attempt to extricate himself he organized the Royal Botanic Lottery, under the patronage of the Prince Regent... it is easy to raise one's eyebrows at Thornton's unworldly and injudicious approach to publishing... But he produced... one of the loveliest books in the world" (Alan Thomas Great Books and Book Collecting, pp.142-144).
First and only state of this plate from the Temple of Flora. See Handasyde Buchanan. Thornton's Temple of Flora, 1951, p.16.
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#18150 $5,750.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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