1872 Color Wood Engraving: Wooster's Alpine Plants, ORCHIS FOLIOSA (Orchid)

Description: 1872 Color Wood Engraving: Wooster's Alpine PlantsORCHIS FOLIOSA (Madeira orchid)This lavishly rendered original antique color wood engraving is from Alpine Plants: and Descriptions of some of the Most Striking and Beautiful of the Alpine Flowers, by David Wooster, F.R.H.S.The Author: Botanist David Wooster (1824-1888), F.R.H.S. (Fellow of The Royal Horicultural Society), was Assistant Secretary to the Royal Commission on scientific instruction and advancement of science.He authored or edited a number of important Botanical works, including an Encyclopedia of Plants, Hortus Britannicus, & perhaps most famously, the present work on Alpine Plants, with its lavish color illustrations.The Publication: Published by Bell and Daldy in London in 1872, Wooster's Alpine Plants featured wood engravings, made from multiple hand-carved blocks (xylographs), prepared and printed by Benjamin Fawcett, based on watercolor paintings by A. Francis Lydon. The accompanying text, authored by David Wooster, included a botanical description of each plant, together with details when it was first discovered or introduced into Great Britain, and instructions on its cultivation. It was comprised of 2 volumes, each with 54 colored plates.The Artist: Alexander Francis Lydon (1893-1917), was a British Watercolor Artist, Illustrator and Engraver of Natural History and Landscapes.The Engraver: Benjamin Fawcett (1808-1893), was one of the finest of English nineteenth century Woodblock Color Printers.The Plant: Now called Dactylorhiza foliosa, commonly known as 'Madeira Orchid' or 'Leafy Orchid', in the family Orchidaceae, endemic to the Portuguese Island of Madeira in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. It's a perennial growing to 24" and producing these spikes of intense, magenta-pink flowers in late spring. This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden MeritThe Technique: These are Color Wood Engravings, or so-called 'Chromoxylographs'. Wood Engravings involve the masterful engraving of wood blocks, but are different than the woodcuts used in the earliest days of printing in the renaissance era, where the parts that weren't to be printed were cut away, but instead of cutting on the side of a board, the end-grain of a very hard boxwood was used, allowing far more detail in the hatched lines.At its height, wood engravings had in some cases, achieved nearly the mastery of detail that some of the steel-plate engravings produced at the time. They required immense skill, many years of training to carve.To print in colors, multiple blocks were used, which had to be precisely lined up, or registered. The process allowed blocks to be mingled with type in Letterpress printing presses, as opposed to needing to be inked & printed separately, so it was useful for newspapers & small illustrations inline with text on a page.The Xylographs in these plates was of a far higher quality than typical wood engravings. The effect created in these flowers is on par with some of the lush chromolithographs that were becoming popular at the time.The colors appear to be hand-finished with watercolor in some examples.Text Page: I don't possess the text page(s) for these Wooster flowers.Condition: This one appears to be in near Excellent condition, on a creamy, white, thick paper, with some age-toning to the paper & typical antique character. The colors & detail remain sharp & beautiful.These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as text-offsetting, foxing, spotting, minor faint creases, etc, expected with the character & charm of antique prints.These rare, fine antique handmade bookplates are a usually from an extremely limited original printing during their short heyday, in the 18th & 19th centuries, before modern offset lithography & the dreaded half-tone screen rendered hand-printed engravings & lithographs obsolete.The few examples of these originals which have been dis-bound from their highly valued antiquarian volumes into their constituent plates, are much coveted & collected for their incredible craft, beauty, artistry & history across generations, generally for eventual framing & displaying. Each one is unique. These are not reproductions, these are the real deal, & very rare.Occasionally light vintage pencil markings by a collector or dealer are noted in the margins, usually by the original print dealer for cataloguing, these are meant to be erased before framing. Please examine the photos & details carefully.Shipping: Multiple prints combine into one USPS Flat-Rate envelope. If you'd like to combine & need more time to choose, please send a message & we'll do our best to oblige. If you're assessed multiple shipping for one combined package, we'll endeavor to refund any overage asap.Dimensions: Approximately 9 by 6 1/4 inches Thanks for Visiting!

Price: 24 USD

Location: Great Barrington, Massachusetts

End Time: 2024-09-19T20:42:40.000Z

Shipping Cost: 8.95 USD