Antique Tree Prints by Rebecca Hey

Background:

These hand-colored Tree prints are from Rebecca Hey's Spirit of the Woods, a rare and beautiful collection of illustrations, botanical facts and prose about Trees found in English gardens and the countryside.

Hey, a British poet and artist, was fascinated with flowers, their history and references in literature (including the bible).   Starting with her Moral of Flowers, Hey's works are considered a landmark among books in poetry and flowers.

The Trees are illustrated from nature with many based on specimens collected by Hey, and depict their leaves, branches and fruit.

Following is an example of the prose collected to accompany the Tree prints in this series:

     "These trees shall be my books,
     And in their barks my thoughts I'll character"