Dr. Robert Thornton

Damask Rose, Unique Blanche, Sulphur Rose, White & Moss Rose, Dog Rose, Cabbage Rose, Yellow Rose, Variegated Rose. With pair of Nightingales, nest of eggs, dragonfly and a Greek temple. First State with twigs of nest clear. Thorton/Earlom.

The Roses is the only plate of Robert Thornton's monumental Temple of Flora which is a collaborative effort of Thornton and the master engraver Richard Earlom. Unlike the majority of plates it depends little upon the background for the overall effect, instead relying on the skill of the artist expressed with superb engraving and colour.

Eighteen poems from antiquity to the current day originally accompanied the Roses which Thornton saw as symbolic of Britain defending herself against Napoleon, 'Nature has given her a vest of purest white, and also imperial robes of the brightest scarlet; and that no rude hand should tear her from her rich domain, she is protected by a myriad of soldiers, who present on every side their naked and sharp swords against the daring invader'.

The Roses is the most iconic and sought after of all the plates in the Temple of Flora, itself one of the most significant botanical works ever produced.