Antique Botanical Chromolithograph of Mediterranean Lip Ferns, circa 1885

This original antique fern chromolithograph shows two lip ferns of the Mediterranean and Caucasus, Cheilanthes fragrans and Cheilanthes szovitzii, the first on wiry crimson stems with fronds turning from green to russet, the second clothed in warm tan wool. Enlarged pinnules of each run along the top of the sheet, and the contrast of green, rust and tan is the strongest color in the volume. It is a plate from James Britten's European Ferns, published in London by Cassell, circa 1885, after a drawing made from the living plant by David Blair.

European Ferns was written by James Britten of the Department of Botany at the British Museum, and the title page promises colored illustrations from nature by D. Blair, Fellow of the Linnean Society. The work first appeared in parts from 1879 to 1881. This sheet belongs to a copy issued under the later imprint Cassell and Company, Limited, which the publisher used from 1883, and it is dated here circa 1885. Each plate carries the running head Cassell's European Ferns at the upper left. The plates were printed in color by Vincent Brooks, Day and Son of London, one of the foremost chromolithographic printers of Victorian England, and the lithographers' credit appears at the lower right of the image. The color is printed throughout, built up from separate stones, not applied by hand.

Blair drew each plant whole, often in its habitat, and set enlarged details of the fronds and spore cases around it, so each sheet works both as a scientific record and as a picture. The play of crimson, rust and tan against green makes this lip fern sheet one of the most colorful in the book. A natural choice for a collector of fern and botanical prints, it also brings a quiet note of green to a bedroom or a reading corner.

Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the right and top edges. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right, top left and top right corners. Several larger brown marks.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.