Chrysanthemum indicum var. (Two Chrysanthemum varieties)

Water-colour and gouache, signed (mid-right) and inscribed in brown ink (lower margin) 'Regne végétal 1 et 2. deux Especes de chrysanthemum.', numbered '1' and '2' (above image). Provenance: Baron Joseph van Huerne (compilor, gift to his grandson:); Joseph de Pelichy. This very fine original botanical watercolour is taken from a compilation of drawings made by Baron Joseph van Huerne in Belgium between about 1790 and 1820, which certainly included 135 (and probably about 170) original watercolour and gouache drawings bound in four albums, each with a manuscript title page 'Collection du Regne Vegetal, Arbres Forestiers et Fruitiers, leurs Fruits. &c' He employed the talents of at least five different artists. A secondary inscription notes the presentation of the albums 'Donné par son grand-Père mons. J. van Huerne à Joseph de Pelichy le 9 Avril 1831'. The albums subsequent history is unclear, but currently Mrs Paul Mellon's Oak Spring Garden Library has one volume [ Oak Spring Sylva 4] and the Royal Horticultural Society in London have two volumes. The fourth volume, from which the present drawing comes, was broken up and dispersed some time before 1983, and the current locations of the other individual drawings are not known, but a selection were exhibited by Eyre & Hobhouse in London in 1983.