Flowering Shrub with Red Blossom, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1815

This antique botanical print comes from the Vienna edition of Bertuch's Bilderbuch and shows a flowering shrub under the heading Pflanzen CLII, with the Vienna mark XVI B 39. The plant is not yet identified and is described here from what the plate shows.

A woody stem carries red and yellow young leaves at the tip, broad green leaves, some shown from below in silver with red veins, and a ring of nodding bell shaped flowers in white and deep pink. A second stalk bears a single dark red flower with many narrow strap shaped petals, which may belong to a different plant. The plate is richly colored and attractive, and the identification will be confirmed before sale.

Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747 to 1822) began his Bilderbuch fuer Kinder in Weimar in 1790 as a picture encyclopaedia for young readers, and over four decades it grew to almost 1,200 plates on plants, animals, peoples, antiquities and the sciences. Its success led to other editions, and this sheet comes from the Vienna edition begun by Anton Pichler as the Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend, with text in German and French; Pichler issued the first ten volumes, and the later volumes, including this one, are believed to have been issued by B. Ph. Bauer in Vienna. The Vienna plates were newly engraved after the Weimar originals, keep the Weimar subject numbering in a heading in German, Latin and French, and carry a volume and plate number in the lower margin, here the mark XVI B 39. Vienna volume XVI follows Weimar volume VIII, which appeared in 1813, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The plate is a copper engraving with original hand color, as the Vienna volumes were issued colored.

A plate like this suits a kitchen, study or garden room, and it hangs well in a group with other Bertuch botanical sheets of the same size. For a collector it is also a neat example of how the Bilderbuch traveled beyond Weimar in the years around 1800.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, a brown stain in the lower margin and a few small spots at the right; the image is clean and bright.

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