The Naturalist's Cabinet: Botanical & Ornithological Plates

The great age of scientific illustration, when the study of nature was also the making of art. Hand-coloured engravings and lithographs from the folios that defined natural history: Basilius Besler's Hortus Eystettensis, Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal, Maria Sibylla Merian's Surinam metamorphoses, John Gould's ornithological monographs, Audubon's Birds of America, and Pierre-Joseph Redoute's roses.

Precise, patient, and quietly beautiful. These plates were drawn to record a species exactly, and that discipline is what gives them their power on a wall.