The Sacred Egyptian Bean

Book Description

London: Dec. 1st., 1804. Hand-coloured and colour-printed aquatint and stipple engraving by Burke and Lewis. Skilfull restoration to margins. 22 1/4 x 18 3/8 inches. The most strikingly beautiful flower plates ever to be printed in England. "The Sacred Egyptian Bean [Nelumbo nucifera Gaertner aka Sacred Lotus of the East Nelumbium speciosum], which no longer grows in Egypt, was first used as a religious symbol in that country, but veneration for it...afterwards spread to Buddhists and Hindus...It grows along the edges of lakes in the countries of the East, thrusting up large pink flowers, which it holds well above the water. In those countries it is found in a white form...but the yellow flower shown in this picture is taken from an American species [Nelumbo lutea (Willd.) Persoon, aka N. pentapetala and Nelumbium luteum], included by Thornton to make the picture more colourful [`with a painter's license, I have introduced the white, red and yellow together, and placed them in Egypt']. The plant has distinctive `pepper-pot' seedpods and the seed itself has remarkable powers of survival, having been known to germinate after lying dormant for four hundred years...The picture has...exceptional charm and a distinctly modern feel about it, although produced nearly two hundred years ago." (Ronald King, The Temple of Flora by Robert Thornton,. 1981, p.108) Thornton's The 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 were 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.

Not sure what some of these terms mean? Look it up in our glossary.