Buying Antique Botanical Prints Without Overpaying

At almost any provincial print fair you will find a box of flower plates marked at 35 pounds each, and a few feet away a single framed tulip priced at 1,800. Both may be genuine and both may be over two hundred years old. The gap between them has very little to do with how pretty the flower is.

Antique botanical prints are one of the friendliest corners of the print market for a new buyer, because so many were made and the best sources are well documented. That same abundance is why people overpay. Once you know which book a plate came from, how it was printed and what has happened to it since, the price on the label starts to make sense or stops making sense very quickly.

Why Antique Botanical Prints Exist in Such Numbers

Most botanical plates were never meant to be framed. They were illustrations in books and periodicals, sold by subscription to gardeners, physicians and wealthy amateurs. When those volumes later lost their bindings, or were deliberately broken up by dealers, the plates entered the market one at a time.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine, which began in 1787, is the classic example. It ran monthly for decades and every issue carried hand coloured plates, so tens of thousands survive. That is why a decent Curtis plate from around 1800 can still be bought for 30 to 80 pounds. Scarcity, not age alone, drives the price.

Dealers also break up herbals, nurserymen's catalogues and gardening encyclopaedias of the 1830s and 1840s, which supply many of the cheaper plates in fair boxes. They can be charming, but they rarely appreciate, so pay accordingly.

The Sources Collectors Ask About First

Before anything else, try to identify the publication. Many plates carry a number, a publisher's line and a date at the foot, often in tiny lettering just below the image. Here are some names you will meet often, from the plentiful to the rare.

A plate from a well known work in a later edition is worth noticeably less than the first. Redoute plates in particular were reissued in smaller formats, and the smaller octavo Roses sell for a fraction of the large folio originals.

Reading How the Plate Was Printed

The printing method helps date a plate and catch a later reproduction. Under a 10x loupe, an engraving shows crisp lines cut into copper, a stipple engraving shows clusters of tiny dots, and a lithograph shows a soft, grainy texture with no raised ink. A modern offset reproduction shows a regular rosette of coloured dots, which is the clearest warning sign of all. Our loupe test for old prints explains each pattern in detail.

Look also for a plate mark: a slight bevelled ridge pressed into the paper around an intaglio image. Its absence on a supposed engraving is a strong reason to walk away. Lithographs, being flat printed, never have one.

Colour, the Biggest Single Factor in Price

Most early botanical plates were printed in black and coloured by hand, usually by teams of colourists working from a master copy. Original colour, applied at the time of publication, is what buyers want. Later colour, added in the twentieth century to brighten a plain plate, can look perfectly attractive and is worth considerably less.

Clues to original colour include gentle fading consistent with the paper, colour that sits naturally within the lines, and a slight offset of pigment onto the facing page if the plate was once bound. Bright, flat colour that ignores the engraved shading suggests a later hand. Redoute is the notable exception to the hand colouring rule. His plates were printed in colour from a single inked copper plate, with each colour dabbed onto the metal by hand before every pass through the press, then finished with a brush. That is why two impressions of the same rose can differ slightly, and why uniform, machine perfect colour on a supposed Redoute should make you suspicious. For a deeper look, see our guide to judging hand colouring on antique prints.

Condition Problems Specific to Flower Plates

Botanical prints suffer the same enemies as any old paper, but a few issues are especially common.

• Trimmed margins. Plates cut down to fit a frame lose value, sometimes by half, because the publisher's line and plate mark may be lost.
• Foxing. Brown spotting is frequent in plates from the early nineteenth century, when paper quality dropped. Light foxing in the margin matters less than spots on the flower itself.
• Verdigris. Green pigments made with copper can burn through the paper over time, leaving brittle or even missing patches in the leaves.
• Light fading. Plates that hung for years in a sunny room often show pale blues and pinks next to stronger greens. Check the back for a ghost of the original shade.

The Advice I Would Ignore

You will often be told to buy the largest, most decorative plate you can afford, because big folio flowers hold their value. That is true at the top of the market, but it pushes many beginners toward expensive plates from late, colour printed editions that look grand and resell poorly.

I would rather a newcomer bought six small Curtis plates in original colour with full margins than one large plate of uncertain edition. You learn far more by handling a run of honest plates from one source, and if you sell later, buyers trust a clean, identifiable group. Size flatters the wall. Provenance and condition hold the value.

FAQ

Is it wrong to buy plates from a broken book?

Most botanical plates on the market came from broken books, and that is accepted practice for common titles. Collectors do frown on breaking a complete copy of a rare work today, so ask the dealer where the plate came from.

How should I frame a botanical print?

Use acid free mount board, a hinge that can be removed, and glazing that filters ultraviolet light. Never let the plate touch the glass, and avoid sunny walls. Our guide to reframing an antique print covers the details.

Are botanical prints a good investment?

Common plates tend to hold their value rather than rise sharply. Rare first editions in original colour have performed better over the long run, but buy what you enjoy looking at first and treat any gain as a bonus.

Before Your Next Print Fair

Take a loupe, a small torch and a note of the five sources above. For every plate that tempts you, ask three questions: which book did it come from, is the colour original, and are the margins intact. If the seller cannot answer the first one, the price should reflect that. You will leave with fewer prints, but each one will be worth what you paid.