Dr Robert Thornton

The eighteenth-century saw the introduction to Europe of vast quantities of new and exotic plants from abroad. Encouraged by Royal patronage, competition throughout Europe to produce the finest illustrative works was extremely high. Having trained as a medical practitioner, Thornton pursued his passion for botany when he inherited his family fortune with an aim to produce a British work that would be ‘a National Honour’.

The Temple of Flora was based on the ideas of Carl Linnaeus whose Systema Natura (1735) drew frank analogies between the sexual behaviour of plants and human beings. Linnaeus’s theories were often greeted with disbelief and stringent censure.  It is to Thornton’s lasting credit that he had the courage to produce a work of such importance against the odds of controversy. Around thirty plates were produced in total over a period between 1799 and 1807 with each plate dated individually. Prints were issued in different combinations according to the specific requirements of individual customers whilst each plate was produced through a different mixed-method of engraving processes – aquatint, mezzotint, stipple and line engraving.

Thornton put every penny of his inheritance into the venture which, due to the continental war and changing taste, ended in financial disaster. In an attempt to extricate himself for overwhelming debt Thornton obtained the permission of Parliament to organise a lottery with twenty-thousand tickets at two guineas each and prizes valued at £77,000. A smaller edition of The Temple of Flora was produced as a lottery prize. The project did not succeed, and when Thornton died in 1837 his family was destitute.

Today, the Temple of Flora is generally held to be one of the finest illustrated botanical works ever produced, and is a splendid testament to the passion of Robert Thornton.

Below are a few examples from this collection. Please click on an image to see it in high-resolution with details of the work itself. For a full list of original antique engravings, please do contact us.

 

Lottery Edition 1812