Marshmallow and Wormwood Medicinal Herbs, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1812

This antique botanical print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows two classic medicinal herbs, the marsh mallow and wormwood. The heading reads Pflanzen CXXV and the Vienna mark XIII.B.44 is engraved at lower right.

Figure 1 is the marsh mallow, Althaea officinalis, a soft leaved stem with pale pink flowers and round seed heads; its root gave the soothing syrup and paste from which the modern sweet takes its name. Figure 2 is wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, with finely divided silvery leaves and sprays of small yellow flower heads, a bitter herb used against fevers and worms and later the flavor of absinthe. The plate would suit a kitchen, a pharmacy or a collection of herbal prints.

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 XIII.B.44. Vienna volume XIII follows Weimar volume VII, which appeared in 1810, 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, small nicks and short tears at the right edge and a light stain near the foot of the stem.

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