Galbanum and Hungarian Gentian, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

This antique botanical print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows two medicinal plants, galbanum and the Hungarian gentian. The heading reads Pflanzen CIV and the plate is signed by the Viennese engraver J.J. Schmuzer above the mark X.B.47.

Figure 1 is galbanum, an umbellifer from Persia with finely cut blue green leaves and a large rounded umbel of yellow flowers; its gum resin was burned as incense and used in plasters. Figure 2 is the Hungarian gentian, Gentiana pannonica, with a crown of purple flowers dotted in dark spots, striped leaves and the thick bitter root that was sold as gentian for tonics and stomach remedies. Both plants illustrate the Bilderbuch's steady interest in where the drugs of the period came from.

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 published by Anton Pichler as the Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend, with text in German and French. 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 X.B.47. Vienna volume X follows Weimar volume V, which appeared in 1805, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The plate is signed J.J. Schmuzer in the lower margin, for a member of the Schmuzer family of Viennese engravers who worked on this edition. 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, faint show through of the verso text and minor nicks and wear at the lower edges; the image is clean.

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