(Botanical Art)(EYRE, Henrietta)   ALBUM OF ORIGINAL WATERCOLORS OF WILD FLOWERS .         (Torquay: ca. 1805-   1814).          A lovely and skillfully drawn album of original watercolors depicting wildflowers studied in the countryside around Torquay at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The talented artist was apparently Henrietta Eyre, whose name appears at the top of the front paste down. While only one of the watercolors bears a specific date (July 20, 1810), several of the sheets are watermarked with dates from 1803 to 1814 and it is safe to conclude that the studies were made over a period of time roughly corresponding to those dates. We have no information regarding the artist, but we do find notice of an apparent later inheritor of the album, Charles Eyre Parker, whose signature is also written on the paste down (with a date of Nov. 28, 1869). and who must have been a relative of the artist. Her name, and the notation of Torquay, also appear to be in his hand. Parker is cited in Desmond's DICTIONARY OF BRITISH AND IRISH BOTANISTS AND HORTICULTURISTS as having collected plants in Torquay from 1845 and having contributed to R. Stewart's HANDBOOK OF TORQUAY, published in 1860. Henrietta was both an observant botanist and a skilled artist. She used extraordinary detail and shading in portraying the flowers she depicted. There is great clarity in the images she painted, a good sense of composition, and a delicate rendering of form. Her botanical knowledge must have been sound. Below each illustration (one plant per sheet) there is generally a notation in old ink giving both botanical and common name. Among the 67 flowers illustrated are found, for example, slender flowered thistle, starwort, sea camomile, common daisy, burdock, southernwood, yellow goat's beard and common coltsfoot. There are also a few lichen, fungi and ferns. Nearly all the subjects are identified, a few in pencil, though most in ink. The serious botanical interest it displays and the artistic skill evident in its preparation give this album an interest and appeal beyond that of the merely decorative flower albums that were more common at that time.   Quarto (26.5 x 21.5 cm); 69 illustrated sheets, most measuring 23 x 19 cm, each bearing a watercolor drawing of an individual flower or plant; inserted loosely into the pink paper leaves of an album, slits having been cut in the album leaves to receive the corners of the illustrated sheets.            Original calf-backed marbled boards scuffed, calf back worn and chipped; hinges cracked but cords tight; the illustrations are on individual loose sheets which are inserted at the corners into slits that have been cut into pink album leaves; the album leaves are mildly foxed, but most of the illustration sheets are clean, apart from some mild foxing near the end; occasional tears in blank album leaves. $6,800.00

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