The Ferns of Great Britain, and Their Allies the Club-Mosses, Pepperworts, and Horsetails. by FERNS) Pratt, Anne. Pratt, Anne (illus). William Dickes (engraver) - No date. Ca. 1855.

London.: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.. No date. Ca. 1855.. 41 color wood-engravings with tissue guards, black and white in-text illustrations, all edges gilt, iv+164pp + plates, 9 1/4 x 6 inches, decorative embossed cloth covered boards with gilt lettered embossed spine (hardbound). Spine bumped and worn at top and bottom, name neatly written in ink on front free endpaper and Edinburgh bookseller label on front pastedown (both small and likely 19th century). Handsome tissue-guarded plates in very good clean condition. This early edition of The Ferns of Great Britain contains fine quality color wood engravings, attributed on the plates to William Dickes, drawn and engraved (W. Dickes del. et sc.) William Dickes (1815-1892) was a licensee of George Baxter (1804-1867) whose relief color printing process revolutionised the commercial market printing world in the 1830s to 1850s; "Dickes did a good deal of work for the S.P.C.K., illustrating at least six of Anne Pratt's botanical works which they published. These Dickes plates, like Baxter's early illustrations, lacked an intaglio key plate." (Friedman, Color Printing in England 1486-1870, Yale 1978). The plates have the appearance of pressed leaves with bright warm coloring - quite different from many of the plates in later editions of Pratt's work. Anne Pratt (1806-1893) was a leader in popularising botany and gardening in 19th century England. The author writes regarding ferns: "There are few things which are worth knowing that can be known without patient attention, and we rejoice in finding this bestowed on the study of these beautiful plants." .