January
Date1730
Publisher
Robert Furber
(c. 1674 - 1756)
After work by
Peter Casteels
Engraver
Henry Fletcher
OriginEngland, London
MediumLine engraving and etching on laid paper with hand coloring
DimensionsOverall: 17 1/2 × 13in. (44.5 × 33cm)
Other (Plate): 16 1/8 × 12 1/4in. (41 × 31.1cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1940-384,A
DescriptionFlowers are individually numbered. Lower margin read: "1 Pellitory with daisy flowers./ 2 Winter Aconite./ 3 Great early Snow drop./ 4 Single Show drop./ 5 White edged Polyanthos./ 6 Dou.ble Peach coul.d Hepatica./ 7 Double blew Violet./ 8. Winter blew Hyacinth./ 9 Lesser black Helleborne / 10 Dwarf white King Spear./ 11 Llex(?) leav'd Jasmine./ 12 Red Sprint Cyclamen./ 13 Acacia or sweet button tree./ 14 White Cyclamen./ 15 Creeping Borage or Bugloss./ 16 Strip'd Spurge./ JANUARY / 17 Lisbon Lemmon Tree. / 18 Canry Campanula./ 19 Dwarf Tithymall. / 20 Double Stock. / 21 Filberd tree in Flower. / 22 True Venetian Vetch. / 23 Seville Orange./ 24 Grey Aloe. / 25 Winter white Hyacinth. / 26 Spotted Aloe. / 27 Narrow curl'd leav;d Bay. / 28 Tree Savory./ 29 Triangle Yellow Ficoides./ 30 Strip'd Orange./ 31 Strip'd Candy tuft. / 32 Tree Sedum. / 33 Single blew Anemone./ Design'd by P.tr Casteels./ From the Collection of Rob.t Furber Gardener a Kensington 1730./ Engrav'd by H. Fletcher"
Label TextIn 1730, a London nurseryman named Robert Furber advertised that he intended to publish a set of twelve prints, one for each month of the year depicting the flowers that were in bloom for that month. The prints were based on paintings by the Flemish artist Pieter Casteels III and engraved by Henry Fletcher. Though beautiful, these prints were not purely decorative, but a cleverly devised marketing scheme to promote Furber’s nursery in Kensington. They were the first illustrated seed catalogue published in England and they launched a flurry of imitations. Furber promised that there would be upwards of 30 different kinds of flowers per print, with each flower labeled with a number and named at the bottom of the print. Ultimately, the twelve prints represented nearly 400 different flowering species.
