According to John Harvey, who published important studies of the development of British plant catalogues before the 1840s, printed catalogues were rare before the mid-eighteenth century.¹ Before that time, merchants conducted most business locally and many people saved or exchanged their own seeds and plants. Seeds and plants were also often sold as a side business by estate gardeners or by merchants who also sold other wares. Documentary evidence shows the existence of nurserymen and seedsmen around London from the early sixteenth century; however, the oldest surviving copies of English seed and nursery trade catalogues date from the second half of the seventeenth century². Robert Furber of the Kensington Nursery published the oldest surviving printed catalogue in pamphlet form in 1727.³ Nurserymen, seedsmen and botanists from the late sixteenth to eighteenth centuries also published gardening books, pamphlets, and gardeners’ calendars that listed seeds or plants for sale.⁴ Publishing instructional literature saved the seedsman or nurseryman the trouble of writing directions for individual customers.⁵ It also provided good publicity, and helped protect his reputation, since customers might blame him if they were unsuccessful with the plants he sold.⁶

As canal networks expanded and more landowners planted trees and landscaped pleasure grounds, more seed and nursery firms were established both inside and outside London. The oldest surviving fully priced printed catalogue came from York in 1775.⁷ Harvey speculated that many of the first priced lists came from nurseries in North England and Scotland, because their clients were less wealthy and lived in a wider geographic range than London’s nursery customers did.⁸ Printed catalogues became more common over the course of the eighteenth century as competition between nurseries increased.⁹

The oldest illustrated English flower catalogue is Twelve Months of Flowers. It was a series of engraved plates, sold by subscription in 1730 by Robert Furber to his royal and aristocratic clients. Instead of presenting plant species individually, the pictures display flowers in lavish bouquets in the style of Flemish flower paintings; indeed, Henry Fletcher engraved the plates after paintings by the artist Pieter Casteels, from Antwerp. Customers were offered the option of buying uncolored or painted sets.¹⁰ Furber issued the equally extravagant Twelve Months of Fruit in 1732. Although few catalogues survive from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the nursery trade grew during this period and there were approximately 200 seed and nursery firms by 1800 in England and Wales.¹¹ Most catalogues before 1800 were unillustrated lists in broadsheet or booklet form; however, some provided additional information such as botanical nomenclature¹² and cultural instructions¹³, and there were several firms that issued catalogues containing a small number of illustrations.¹⁴

British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800. 1975. 4 pp.

British Botanical and Horticultural Literature before 1800. 1975. 4 pp.

Notes

1. John H. Harvey, Early Gardening Catalogues (London and Chichester, Phillimore, 1972) 14 Return to text ↑
2. Harvey, Early Gardening Catalogues 4-8 Return to text ↑
3. Blanche Henrey, A History and Bibliography of British Botanical and Horticultural Books up to 1800, vol.2 (London, New York and Toronto, 1975) 343; Harvey, Early Gardening Catalogues 14 Return to text ↑
4. John H. Harvey, Early Nurserymen (London, Phillimore, 1974) 145; Malcolm Thick, Garden Seeds in England before the late eighteenth century-II”, Agricultural History Review, 38, #2, 1990: 107. Thick mentions that the first English vegetable gardening book by Richard Gardiner in 1599 also contained a price list of vegetable seeds he sold. Return to text ↑
5. Henrey 328 Return to text ↑
6. Thick 112 Return to text ↑
7. Harvey, Early Gardening Catalogues 36 Return to text ↑
8. Harvey, Early Gardening Catalogues 35-36 Return to text ↑
9. Henrey 408 Return to text ↑
10. Harvey, Early Gardening Catalogues 14; Henrey 343-4. Return to text ↑
11. Harvey, Early Nurserymen 7 Return to text ↑
12. Harvey, Early Gardening Catalogues 40 says catalogues using Latin binomial names and English names appeared in the 1770s. Return to text ↑
13. Harvey, Early Gardening Catalogues, 66 says book-form catalogues containing cultural instructions and gardeners’ calendars date from the mid 18^th century. Return to text ↑
14. Brent Elliot, Nursery Catalogues. Royal Horticultural Society. Available at http://www.rhs.org.uk/About-Us/RHS-Lindley-Library/Projects/Nursery-catalogues/Dr-Brent-Elliott Return to text ↑