Lot 46: Withers (Augusta Innes, fl. 1829-1865) Agave americana variegata, pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour, inscribed '

Withers (Augusta Innes, fl. 1829-1865)
Agave americana variegata, pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour, inscribed 'Agave/Americana Variegata' and 'Flowered at Serge Hill 1860/Height 19 feet 11 inches', watermarked 'J. Whatman/1858', 745 by 500.mm., signed "Mrs Withers Del't"

Augusta Withers, Flower Painter in Ordinary to Queen Adelaide, exhibited at the Royal Academy, from 1829 to 1846, and with the New Watercolour Society. She contributed to numerous periodicals and florilegia, including Transactions of the Horticultural Society, Pomological Magazine and James Bateman's Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala, 1837-41.

The first plants from America reached England in the 1570s, but were rare until the nineteenth century. The Agave americana variegata can take up to 10 to 15 years to flower, so this watercolour documents a significant horticultural achievement.

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