Mary Delany, Physalis, Winter Cherry, a paper collage

In the autumn of 1772 artist Mary Delany (1700-88) wrote to her niece Mary Port: 'I have invented a new way of imitating flowers'. Mary was an English artist with a strong eye for botanical detail and many of her pieces were made using a paper mosaic method. She would cut minute pieces of coloured paper and stick them on a black background to represent each part of a specimen. Occasionally she touched up the pictures with watercolour. Here she has incorporated the real skeleton of a pod case to stick over the paper seeds. The glue that she used was possibly egg-white, or flour and water.

The winter cherry fruit plant, also known as Chinese lantern, is indigenous to southern Europe and eastern Asia. Many friends sent Mrs Delany flowers from their gardens for her to copy. On each of her ‘paper mosaicks’ she recorded the botanical and common names, the place they were found and the date. Most of her collages were made at Bulstrode, the home of her dearest friend, Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. Mary spent seventeen summers with her after Dr Delany's death in 1768.

She created nearly a thousand collages before failing eyesight caused her to stop in 1782. They filled ten albums which came to the British Museum in 1897.