The Secret Life of Flowers

I will never forget the thrill of disbelief when I first encountered Mrs. Delaney’s floral “mosaics” in the British Museum. This took place in the hushed inner sanctum of the Print Room, which is lined, on two levels, with mahogany cases holding solander boxes filled with prints and drawings. During the year I spent there as a volunteer assistant (1975–76), my desk was juxtaposed with that of Edward (“Teddy”) Croft-Murray, the imposing and eccentric Keeper Emeritus. He wore an 18th-century vest, carried an 18th-century cane and wrote with a goose quill pen (a supply of which was kept on hand specially for him). One day, when he thought I needed a break, Teddy asked whether I had discovered Mrs. Delaney’s albums.

It is all but impossible to believe that the 985 collages made between 1772 and 1783 mounted in ten leather-bound volumes entitled “Flora Delanica” after their creator, Mary Delaney, were made using hand-coloured papers, scissors and flour paste. The minute...