Elegant Antique Hand-Colored Botanical Fern Print, Hemionitis rufa, 1806-1809

Hemionitis rufa is the subject of this original antique copper engraving, hand-colored, plate 21 from Christian Schkuhr's account of the ferns, club mosses and horsetails published at Wittenberg from 1806 to 1809. Hemionitis takes in ferns whose spore cases form a net rather than separate dots. The sheet carries 2 species, lettered Hemionitis rufa and Polypodium obtusum beneath the figures, with the plate number engraved at the upper right. Beside the habit drawing Schkuhr adds the small lettered analyses he is known for, the spore cases, the scales and the sections that make the plate useful to a botanist as well as pleasant to look at.

The plate comes from Christian Schkuhr's account of the twenty-fourth Linnaean class, the cryptogams, the plants that reproduce by spores rather than by flowers. Schkuhr, who was born at Pegau in 1741 and died at Wittenberg in 1811, worked first as a gardener, studied at the University of Wittenberg, and taught himself drawing and engraving so completely that he drew, engraved and published his own plates. The fern volume appeared in nine instalments between 1806 and 1809 and carries 221 plates, numbered to 173 with lettered supplements added as new material reached him.

This is an engraving on copper with original hand coloring, printed on the bluish paper that the first impressions of the work were issued on. The engraved line carries the structure and the watercolor carries the color, applied by hand so that no two copies of the plate are quite alike. Fern plates hang well because the subject is shape rather than incident, and a sheet like this reads clearly from across a room. It suits a study, a hallway, a bathroom or a kitchen, and it sits comfortably with other botanical work, with natural history prints and with plain modern interiors where a single green form on cream paper is enough.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Handling soiling along all four edges. Slight wear at the bottom right corner.

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