A RARE GEORGE III BOTANICAL FAN

A RARE GEORGE III BOTANICAL FAN

PUBLISHED BY SARAH ASHTON LONDON, C.1792

'The Botanick Fan', hand-coloured engraving on paper, depicting the sexual anatomy of plants, arranged according to the Swedish botanist, Carl Linneaus's classification specimens, with eight lines of a lettered verse from Darwin's 'Botanic Garden', with boxwood guards and sticks, later mounted in a glazed gilt faux bamboo frame

46cm wide

Catalogue Note

The name of the fan comes from lines of the poem printed on the leaf, 'The Botanic Garden' by Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin.

The Botanic Garden was intended to pique the readers' interest in science whilst educating them at the same time. Whereas Linneaus' classification focused on male plants, Darwin gave female plants a central role. It has been argued that the poem encouraged women to engage in scientific pursuits.

Sarah Ashton was a prominent publisher of fan leaves in the late 18th century from her business in Little Britain, near St. Martin's Court, Covent Garden. She was admitted in 1770 into The Worshipful Company of Fan Makers and carried on the printing business after her husband's death.

For an identical fan, see the V & A Museum, accession number E. 3191-1938.