Antique Chromolithograph of the Killarney Fern and Filmy Ferns, circa 1885

This original antique fern chromolithograph shows the Killarney fern, Trichomanes radicans, spreading its translucent dark green fronds from a furred creeping rhizome, with the two native filmy ferns, the Tunbridge fern and Wilson's fern, creeping on their wiry roots below. Each species has an enlarged fruiting pinnule beside it. 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 Killarney fern was among the most prized plants of the Victorian collecting craze, and this is the sheet many fern collectors look for first. 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. Handling soiling along the left and right edges. All four corners complete.

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