November, 2025

New Zealand parks and gardens are blooming with spring and early summer flowers.  It is often the botanical art which shows the pale beauty and details lost by the casual eye.

The finest set of watercolours of New Zealand flora was published by the Sarah and Edward Featon.  Sarah as a highly skilled botanical artist provided the paintings and Edward wrote the text. Only one volume of the projected work was published, with the chromolithography carried out in Wellington. The work was originally published in 3 parts in 1888, and we have a rare set of these for sale as issued, with the 40 full-page coloured plates. The set was published in the following year in a single bound volume, which we also have on offer.

In the same year, Georgina Hetley, another fine botanical artist, published her set of 36 coloured paintings covering 45 flowering species of New Zealand flora. It was difficult collecting specimens, and to paint them in the often small flowering window.  Mrs Hetley provides an interesting account of her efforts in this search.  We have a very good set for sale.

While sketching and painting flowers and plants was a common pastime of Victorian women, we should recognise the great skill and artistry of those such as Featon and Hedley.  Both have provided work both of great beauty and botanical value.