Description:
Very good copy of a rare privately printed botanical book by a Victorian woman artistComplete with hand-coloured title and 20 hand-coloured botanical plates, all finely lithographed by Dean and Monday of 40 Threadneedle Street, London.
All plates drawn by talented and mysterious botanical artist E.E. Gleadall.
The flowers include exotic camellias, rhododendron, lady's slipper orchid, passionflower, coral tree, tiger lily, flowering cactus and waterlilies, as well as roses, geraniums, daffodils, pansies and heather.
Miss Eliza Eve Gleadall (1806-1887) was headmistress of the ladies seminary at Heath Old Hall near Wakefield. Here she taught English grammar, French, Italian, music, history, geography, and botanical illustration. She married Benjamin Williamson of Leeds in 1838 and retired from teaching and botanical art to bring up her seven children. Widowed in 1854, she launched another ladies seminary in Harrogate and ran it until her death in 1887. Her only book Beauties of Flora is a guide to… Read More