Hand colored lithograph. Excellent condition.
17 x 14.5 inches outside dimensions.
Archivally framed in curly maple frame.

An original engraved botanical plate included in a later edition (1640) of Hortus Eystettensis, initially printed in Germany in 1613. The magnificent work was the first florilegium (great flower book) produced for pleasure and edification, and not for strictly medicinal purposes. Incredibly, the botanical work contained 367 images of over 1,000 varieties of flowering plants. This amazing accomplishment was the result of the collaboration of two men, a Nuremberg apothecary named Basil Besler (1561-1629) and his patron the Prince Bishop of Eichstatt. They worked on it in tandem for sixteen years and included images of all of the flowers and plants grown in the extraordinarily extensive gardens that the Prince created in the lands surrounding his castle. The volume included many plants and flowers seen and described for the very first time including many exotic plants brought to the Prince from Mexico and the Americas. The copper plate engravings were printed on unusually large sheets of hand-made paper in order to show each plant life size. Besler carefully identified his specimens with a flourishing baroque style engraved calligraphy. Considered the “best of the best” in early botanical engravings by scholar and collector both.

Three specimens of cyclamen varieties, all with root balls and beautifully hand colored leaves and blooms, framed in a carved gold leaf molding with ultra violet protective plexiglas. Exceptional image.

Hand colored copperplate engraving, archivally framed
Measuring 28 x 25 inches outside frame size.
Excellent condition.

Hand colored lithograph. Excellent condition.
17 x 14.5 inches outside dimensions.
Archivally framed in curly maple frame.

Hand colored lithograph. Excellent condition.
17 x 14.5 inches outside dimensions.
Archivally framed in curly maple frame.

Hand colored lithograph. Excellent condition.
17 x 14.5 inches outside dimensions.
Archivally framed in curly maple frame.

11.5 x 9 inches inches, sheet.
Hand colored lithograph.
Archivally framed in curly maple frame.
Excellent condition.

11.5 x 9 inches inches, sheet.
Hand colored lithograph.
Archivally framed in curly maple frame.
Excellent condition.

In her introduction to this work, Mrs. Loudon (1807-1858) stated her goal to be to create a work that would be useful to ladies interested in flowers and would encourage the study of botany “which has hitherto been too much neglected… I shall take only the most ornamental plants, and I shall not figure any flowers that are common in gardens. My object is to enable any amateur who may find a pretty flower growing in the wild to ascertain its name and some particulars respecting it.”

Hand colored lithograph.
11 ¼ x 8 5/8 inches, sheet.
Light overall toning.

An attractive floral design of gold, white and pale purple against a beige background by Anton Seder. Seder began his career as a painter in Munich. In 1890, he became the first director of the Ecole Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Strasbourg and remained in that position until 1920. In that role and through the prints based upon his work he became one of the most highly influential figures in European design of the period.

This large, beautifully printed chromolithograph was included in a turn of the 20th century design book published in Berlin. The original prints it contained reflected and encouraged popular interest in the stylized naturalistic motifs of Art Nouveau, the Renaissance revival interest in garlands and the Aesthetic Movement’s use of potted plants and ferns in design and interiors.

20 x 14 inches, sheet.
Chromolithograph heightened with gold
Excellent condition.

A wonderful, stylized floral design of gold, white and pale purple against a beige background by Anton Seder. Seder began his career as a painter in Munich. In 1890, he became the first director of the Ecole Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Strasbourg and remained in that position until 1920. In that role and through the prints based upon his work he became one of the most highly influential figures in European design of the period.

This large, beautifully printed chromolithograph was included in a turn of the 20th century design book published in Berlin. The original prints it contained reflected and encouraged popular interest in the stylized naturalistic motifs of Art Nouveau, the Renaissance revival interest in garlands and the Aesthetic Movement’s use of potted plants and ferns in design and interiors.

20 x 14 inches, sheet.
Chromolithograph heightened with gold.
Excellent condition.