The Auricula by José Escofet, limited-edition botanical plate book published by Stephanie Hoppen (1990)
The large-format portfolio of The Auricula, a limited-edition botanical plate book issued as a loose-leaf folio of 500 numbered copies, it features twelve colour plates illustrated by the celebrated Spanish-born still-life painter José Escofet, paired with an authoritative historical text by Brenda Hyatt.
The "Florists' Cult" and the Huguenot Legacy
As Brenda Hyatt details in the introduction text, the auricula (Primula auricula) occupies a unique space in horticultural history. It was the central focus of the original 17th- and 18th-century "Florists' Feasts"—societies of passionate, working-class growers (rather than wealthy landowners) who bred flowers to strict, competitive standards of geometric perfection.
Crucially, the intense love for the auricula in Great Britain was driven by Huguenot weavers fleeing religious persecution in Flanders and France following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. They brought their prized auricula collections with them, introducing them to the textile and industrial towns of Lancashire, Cheshire, and London (such as Spitalfields). For these weavers and later coal miners, breeding these porcelain-like, dust-covered flowers at their doorsteps became an obsession and an artistic escape.
José Escofet and the Revival of High Botanical Realism
José Escofet (born near Barcelona in 1930), immigrated to England in the late 20th century. Throughout the 1980s, Escofet spearheaded a magnificent revival of classical Dutch and Spanish golden-age still-life painting.
His work moved away from flat scientific diagrams toward hyper-realistic, dramatic, and intensely lit interpretations of flora. The Auricula represents a pinnacle of his career from this period; each plate was individually signed and numbered by Escofet to capture the unique, velvety, "farina" (powdered) texture that defines the show auricula.
Stephanie Hoppen and Fine Art Publishing
The publisher, Stephanie Hoppen is an internationally renowned gallery owner, antiquarian, and connoisseur who operated prominent spaces in London and New York.
Hoppen specialized in rare antique textiles, historic maps, and 17th-to-19th-century botanical prints. In publishing Escofet's work in a limited, elephant-folio format inside a luxurious cloth solander box, Hoppen deliberately revived the grand, subscriber-funded tradition of the great 18th-century botanical publishing houses (such as those of Robert John Thornton or Pierre-Joseph Redouté). It was designed not just as a book, but as a high-art collectible where individual sheets were routinely extracted to be framed for fine country-house interiors.
Complete with 12 signed plates.
420mm x 550mm
R2,500
