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The Botanic Garden
The
crocus and snowdrop motif (pictured right) came from an 1830's
text called 'The Romance of Nature' illustrated by Louisa
Twamley. At 27, she was a successful writer and illustrator
and published a number of books. Her career in botanical illustration,
however, was cut short when in 1839 she married and emigrated
to Tasmania.
Design
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As
Susan collected her material she was thinking how to present
the floral images as a design. She decided to add one or two
butterflies, moths or other suitable insects to each motif to
improve the fit on the pottery shapes and add more variety.
She found various antique books on butterflies and insects.
Susan then found a small triple leaf from a page of leaf forms,
she repeated the leaf, end to end, to create the now famous
'Botanic Garden' border which is now part of the Company logo.
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Then
came the name. The only solution, she thought, was to call it
Botanic Garden, because only in a botanic garden could the presence
of such a mixed collection of plants and insects from so many
different climates be accounted for, and she would also be left
free to add whatever other flowers or butterflies she might
fancy in the future. She also remembered Erasmus Darwin's long
poem called 'The Botanic Garden'. Erasmus was Charles Darwin's
grandfather, and was devoted, as was Charles Darwin, to natural
history. However, whereas Charles Darwin collected facts to
prove the theory of evolution, his grandfather very much took
it for granted, as indeed had quite a few scholars since the
sixteenth century. Erasmus was a successful physician and spent
much of his time producing enormously long poems of scientific
and technical subjects, such as 'The Loves of the Plants' and
'The Botanic Garden' with facts clearly described in somewhat
classical language. They are still remembered by a few today,
including Susan, but certainly not read.
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Susan
was determined to give the public a good choice of motifs in
her Botanic Garden. The original launch included 28 different
plant motifs.
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