The bonus of buying second-hand botanical art books

Three catalogues from solo exhibitions by Mary Grierson

I have a serious botanical art book addiction. There's nothing nicer than getting stuck into an hour or more of browsing through what's on offer from vintage booksellers with a good collection of botanical art books.

Well nothing nicer than the book you bought turning up and being so much better than you were expecting! There's something about books produced in the past which yells "quality" and if you've got a "very good" or "as new" version then I'm in heaven.

However what's better still is the fact that botanical art book owners tend to be very nice people - and they pass on extras in their books that they don't tell you about until you get them.

Which is how I come to be the owner of some seriously archival class documents about Mary Grierson (1912-2012) (who I currently have listed on the 20th Century Botanical Artists page on the website) when I purchased a copy of her book An English Florilegium

The image at the top of the page is of the exhibition catalogues for three solo exhibitions - which probably each deserve a blog post in their own right!

They are- from left to right:

• Hedgerows of England - an exhibition of watercolour drawings by Mary Grierson at Spink (20th November - 7h December 1979)
• Mary Grierson - An English Florilegium - Botanical Watercolour Drawings of the Tradescant Legacy at Spink (4th - 27th November 1987) - this one is annotated with prices in pencil and relates to the book I bought.
• Mary Grierson - Plants of the Hawaiian Islands and other Recent Watercolours at Spink (22nd May - 1 st June 1990) this one is also annotated with prices in pencil

They came in a copy of An English Florilegium which I will be doing a book review of shortly alongside developing a brand new page on the website devoted to Mary Grierson.

Of late I've become seriously appreciative of catalogues from exhibitions of botanical art. They tell you so much about the scope and nature of the art but also details of the artist which often never reaches formal publication in a book. For the serious student of botanical art, I'd very much recommend paying serious attention to exhibition catalogues.

You might also like to think about you and your work are recorded in solo exhibitions - for posterity and future collectors!

About Mary Grierson (1912-2012)

Mary Grierson in brief:

• born of Scottish parents in Bangor in North Wales
  
• painted plants from a young age
  
• worked in the WAAF as an interpreter for the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
  
• took up botanical art 'properly' at age 48!
• Studied botanical illustration under John Nash RA
• Botanical artist / illustrator working for Kew Gardens 1960-1972.
• She won five RHS Gold Medals
• plus the Veitch Memorial Medal of the RHS, and later their Victoria Medal of Honour. 
• She continued to work after she retired, producing illustrations for "Hedgerows of England" and "Coastal Plants of England" and published a Florilegium of the Flora of Hawaii

When she died I wrote this blog post In praise of the older artist - Mary Anderson Grierson. in a celebration of her achievements in botanical art most of which came after the age of 60!

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About Spink

Note: Spink is Spink & Son Ltd who at the time were located at 5 King Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6QS. They are now located at 69 Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 4ET. However, the gallery which sold botanical art closed just after the turn of the millennium.