The Laurel Tree of Carolina - Catesby after Georg Ehret, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. 1st Edition.

First Edition with watermark and corresponding information page, Framed (floated on rice paper) in a gold frame. One half of binding holes visible at right edge. This extraordinary portrait of the huge bloom of the magnolia tree is a 280-year-old hand-colored print that comes to us in superb original condition.  And it comes to us directly from the hands of the original artist, Mark Catesby (1682 to 1749), an intrepid explorer of the generally unknown parts of the New World in his time; a young man also possessed of an educated, artistic mind full of extraordinary curiosity.  And to think that when Mr. Catesby was hard at work producing his first-of-its-kind, Mrs. Washington was busy bouncing her newborn son, George, gently upon her knee. Mark Catesby, English by birth, first arrived in Williamsburg, the capital city of the British colony of Virginia, in 1712.  He stayed with his sister Elizabeth, who was married to the Secretary of State for the Virginia colony.  For the next seven ye