Large flowered slipperwort

Sorting through some of my mother's papers recently, I came across this book illustration that had been made into a Christmas card. My mother told me that she received it in 1940 from Lady Winchilsea when they worked in a Women's Land Army office in southern England during the second world war.

We were keen to find out more about the illustration, and Mr Google has been amazingly helpful here by scanning enormous numbers of old, out of copyright books and allowing free, online access. Our illustration is from a book published in 1835 called 'The British Flower Garden', by Robert Sweet, drawings by ED Smith. More interestingly from our point of view, we now know that the plant is Calceolaria pendula (common name: large flowered slipperwort), native to the island of Chiloe off the coast of Chile.

These books with coloured illustrations have regularly been dismantled for the very attractive pictures, which sell for $50 or more apiece today. Unsurprisingly the complete book is very rare. There will be a few scattered copies in libraries and herbaria around the world.

It's looking like a damp, drizzly day again today, so I'm hoping to complete my paper-sorting chore (assuming I don't find too many more distractions similar to this one!).