Sarah Featon

Who was Sarah Featon?

Sarah Featon was an accomplished botanical artist from New Zealand.

Sarah, with her husband Edward Featon, made publishing history in 1889 with the publication of their book The Art Album of New Zealand Flora. This book was the first full-colour art book to be published in New Zealand. It contained systematic and popular descriptions of the native flowering plants of New Zealand and the adjacent islands. Sarah created all of the artwork for the book and commissioned the chromo-lithography for the book plates from the workshop of Bock and Cousins, Wellington. The challenges of the technique and the high costs involved put the firm's partnership under such financial strain that it had to be dissolved.

A copy of the book was presented to Queen Victoria during her diamond jubilee.

Sarah suffered financial hardship later in life and sold the original artwork for the book to the Dominion Museum - now the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.