Pratt v. Sowerby

ANNE PRATT versus JOHN SOWERBY

A box of papers held by the library of the Natural History Museum, London, gives evidence of an altercation between Anne Pratt and the botanical illustrator, John Edward Sowerby. It gives an interesting sidelight on Anne's character, as well as showing her handwriting.

In the box are 35 leaves with two or more plates. On each leaf is pasted a plate from Pratt's The Ferns of Great Britain (1855). Pasted at the sides, so they can be lifted, are plates from a book of the same title by John E. Sowerby and Charles Johnson (text by Johnson, illustrations by Sowerby dated 1855).

It is apparent that Sowerby complained to the publisher that Pratt had plagiarised some of his illustrations. This box of papers is Pratt's response to this complaint, as on 20 of the leaves there are handwritten comments, some phrases being double-underlined for emphasis.

As an example, take her comments on Polypodium phegopteris, the Beech-fern. There are three plates pasted on the sheet, Pratt's, Sowerby's, and one from an earlier publication. “An assumption. On closely comparing the two the difference will be manifest. I am much inclined to think that Mr Sowerby's whole plant is copied from the one published in 1810. Mine is from nature.”

Asplenium spp., two Spleenwort species (illustrated). “Mr Sowerby appears to be right as far as concerns the frond marked A but no further. To call this an infringement of copyright is childish. [!] Mr Sowerby's Adiantum nigrum is a tracing from a plate published in 1809...”.

These continue in the same vein, accusing Sowerby of copying from plates published from 1790 to 1811. Her exasperation with his accusations comes through. “Mr Sowerby's own plates are slavish copies...If Mr Sowerby were right the objection is contemptible but he is wrong...Mr Sowerby is right here but I blush to think that an artist can notice such a trifle [!]...I am at a loss here to trace the likeness [between my plate and his] but if I could I should reply that Mr Sowerby's is a facsimile of a plate published as far back as 1790...”.

She becomes exasperated. “I am sorry for Mr Sowerby's character (he professing to give the public a new book) to say that each of the prints in his present book are facsimiles reversed [!] from publications of 1793. 1802 and 1811.”

We are grateful to Andrea Hart of the Natural History Museum for drawing our attention to this archive.

A personal recollection

We are fortunate to have a personal recollection of Anne Pratt from her nephew, Sidney Young (1843-1914) who went to stay with his Aunt Anne as a boy.  Anne's sister Catherine married Joseph Young, Sidney's father.  Sidney later became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA) and late in life wrote A History of the Families of Young and Goodall, Isle of Wight (Privately Printed 1913).  The following comes from this account (pp.23-29).

"The second daughter of Robert and Sarah Pratt was Anne Pratt, a lady of exceptional attainments, botany being her special subject, though she wrote much on other topics.  She frequently resided at Dover, and I well remember when about six years of age going there with her in the stage coach from Chatham, and remaining under her loving care for some months.  On fine days she would sit on the parade with her tablet and notes writing a book, whilst I played on the beach in front, her watchful eye on me and a gentle reproof now and again escaping her lips when I happened to be what she called "my naughty little boy."  In the afternoons she was the centre and life of a circle of friends who gathered round to enjoy what I afterwards learned, was her brilliant and attractive conversation.  Her elder sister, my dear mother, was an equally ardent student of botany and greatly assisted Aunt Anne, collecting specimens for her with an expert's knowledge of discrimination.

My sisters, Jane Kettle and Emily Wells, both of whom inherited the brightness and intelligence of the mother and Aunt Anne, in 1889 wrote for a weekly paper a short article on 'Anne Pratt,' which is so prettily and appreciatively composed that I must preserve it in these pages."
[To read this article click here]

"When sixty years of age Anne Pratt married Mr. John Pearless of East Grinstead.  Anne died on the 27th July, 1893, in the 87th year of her age, and her husband died in December of the same year."

Strood's Famous Botanist by Barbara Marchant

The most comprehensive account of the life and works of Anne Pratt is found in an article by a local historian of Strood, Barbara Marchant, published in The Clock Tower, Issue 5, Spring 2007, pages 11-14.

To read this click here.

About Anne Pratt

FP Plate24 Nasturtium

The scientific spirit of the nineteenth century, to observe and to classify, led to a spate of botanical illustrators, mainly women, who sought to convey the results of scientific work to a wider audience.

The most prolific among these was Anne Pratt, who produced over 20 books, many running to several editions.  Her magnum opus, The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain (1865), contains 319 meticulously drawn and beautiful coloured plates, and gives detailed botanical descriptions of about 1500 species.

Due to poor health as a child she learn't to draw, and when a friend of the family, Dr Dodds, introduced her to botany she became enthralled by the variety and beauty of flowers.  Because of her frail health, these were collected by her sister Catherine; an early painting shows her looking at pressed plants in a personal herbarium.

FP Plate 39 Campion