Botanical manuscript

[Nature printing]. Botanical manuscript on paper.

Austria, 2nd half of the 19th c.

Large 4to (225 x 268 mm). 224 unnumbered ff. with more than 250 page-sized plant illustrations, mostly in a mixed techique of nature printing and coloured drawings. Also includes 3 coloured engraved plates and 1 tipped-in coloured lithograph. Later half calf over marbled boards with stamped title to spine.

 8,500.00

An uncommon collection of talented botanical illustrations, many based on nature prints amplified and coloured in various techniques. The plates show mainly medicinal and culinary plants (belladonna, calendula, tobacco, eggplant "from Arabia" etc.), frequently with blossoms and fruits. All plates are identified in Latin, many have additional notes in German stating the plants' flowering season and place of origin. Some plates are signed "G.F.", a fact which has suggested attribution to the Austrian naturalist Georg von Frauenfeld (1807-73), one of the leading scientists on the Novara expedition (cf. Reiss 77 [2001], lot 77). Frauenfeld himself published a book on the algae of the Dalmatian coast, illustrated by nature printing (cf. Fischer, Naturselbstdruck, no. 72). Includes three engravings and one lithograph from other botanical works.

Occasional light browning and fingerstaining; a few slight edge defects, but well preserved altogether.

Stock Code: BN#51601 Tags: , , ,