This original engraving is in good condition with some ageing present-please see supersize image below. Printed on one side only on heavy grade paper, the page measures  10ins x 6ins approx.(22.5cm x 14cms approx.) with the publisher's imprint etc. and is dated. It is becoming increasingly harder to find these Curtis botanical engravings, especially in their uncoloured state,  and the value of each of these prints is increasing from year to year, making it a rare addition to your collection and ideal for framing and/or colouring.

The Botanical Magazine (renamed Curtis's Botanical Magazine after his death) was a great success and the one for which William Curtis is best remembered. It first appeared in 1787 and was produced, according to Curtis, in response to the "repeated solicitations of several ladies and gentlemen for a work in which Botany and Gardening, or the labours of Linnaeus and Miller might happily be combined." Its beautiful hand-coloured plates made it very desirable and it achieved a circulation of around 3,000 throughout Curtis's lifetime.

In its early years the chief artist on the magazine was Sydenham Edwards-a talented botanical artisit. Edwards produced over 1,600 of the 1,721 plates that appeared in the magazine in its first 28 years. His association with the publication continued until 1815 when he had a disagreement with the editors and left to set up the rival Botanists' Register.

Fitch was introduced to botany by William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine and Professor of Botany at Glasgow University. Hooker, impressed with Fitch's artistic skills, bought him out of his apprenticeship and put him to work on Curtis's Botanical Magazine. Fitch's first published plate appeared in volume 61 in March 1834 - the first of nearly 3,000 for that journal. When Hooker became director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1841, Fitch went with him and he was to illustrate nearly every book issued from Kew over the next forty years. Fitch's great artistic skill and scientific accuracy ensured that he was in demand to illustrate a wide range of botanical works from scientific monographs to textbooks and from floras to works of popular science. His output was prodigious; he produced over 9,000 drawings for various publications apart from those for Curtis's Botanical Magazine. His name is commemorated in the genus Fitchia.