Rosemary

Name: Rosemary
Brand: Cabinet of Curiosities
SKU: PA-00255

Elizabeth Blackwell, 1737–1739

Cabinet of CuriositiesPA-00255Tear sheet

Display only

No print size passed the check for this piece: at 8 x 10 in, Wrong shape: a 13% crop. We would rather show it than sell a soft print.

See pieces like it you can buy

Another plate from Elizabeth Blackwell's self-drawn, self-engraved, self-colored A Curious Herbal (1737–1739), this one recording rosemary — prized in 18th-century medicine as a treatment for everything from headaches to fainting, and one of the most commonly stocked herbs in any period apothecary's shop. Blackwell drew from specimens supplied by the Chelsea Physic Garden while her husband Alexander, a former printer turned failed physician, sat in debtors' prison; the book's proceeds paid his debts and secured his release. What to notice: the small inset at upper left isolates a single flower and its seed, separated out for identification exactly the way a period apothecary would need to cross-reference the plant against a dried or powdered sample — this is a working tool first, an art object second, which is precisely what makes it remarkable now.

Maker: Elizabeth Blackwell
Date: 1737–1739
Medium of the original: Plate
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00255

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 10 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
8 x 12 in	136 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
11 x 14 in	Wrong shape: a 12% crop
12 x 16 in	94 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 18 in	91 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 20 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
16 x 24 in	68 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
18 x 24 in	63 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 30 in	54 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
24 x 36 in	45 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 40 in	37 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	31 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	27 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned

2026-10-07

Master file

1,136 x 1,638 px, srgb, Adobe RGB (1998)

Tone

Darks 76, lights 255 of 255; 33.9% clipped light, 0.5% clipped dark

Colour

0% vivid

Sharpness

102.17

Notes

Colour profile Adobe RGB (1998), converted to sRGB for the screen and the print
Pure white on 34% of the image, mostly the sheet itself: it prints as the paper's white

About the house