John Sebastian Miller

John Sebastian Miller, was born in Nuremberg in 1715 where his father was a gardener at the Stromerischen Garten. Then known as Johann Sebastian Müller, he trained as an engraver under Johann Christoph Weigel and Martin Tyroff before coming England in 1744 and setting up a studio in London.

By the 1760s Miller was established as a leading designer and engraver of historical images and portrait prints. Amongst which he engraved a number of images of the famous Vauxhall Gardens.

Miller's principal passion had however, always been botany and he spoke of his 'early inclination to Botany' and his 'desire of rendering his Profession as an Engraver subservient to the Cultivation of his favourite Science'.

He worked with Philip Miller of Chelsea Physic Garden and his first major contribution to the illustration of this science came with his plates for Philip Miller's “Figures of the most beautiful, useful and uncommon plants, described in the gardener's dictionary” (1758).

"The Sexual System of Linnaeus", was John Sebastian Miller's greatest work. It was launched in 1770 with the support of Gowin Knight, librarian of the British Museum, and completed in parts in 1776.

In a highly decorated frontispiece Miller depicted himself facing Carl Linnaeus in homage to the botanist.

Initially the classification of plants was inconsistent but in 1735 Linnaeus had published “Systema Naturae” which outlined his ideas for the hierarchical classification of the natural world, dividing it into the animal kingdom (regnum animale), the plant kingdom (regnum vegetabile), and the mineral kingdom (regnum lapideum).

He went onto publish “Species Plantarum” in 1753, the work which described over 7,300 species is now internationally accepted as the starting point of modern botanical nomenclature.
In his sexual system, plant species were grouped according to the number of stamens and pistils in the flower.

The first two parts of Miller’s publication were sent to Linnaeus in December 1770 and received his enthusiastic endorsement describing Miller's plates as ‘more beautiful and more accurate than any that had been since the world began'.