Moonworts and Adder's Tongues, Pair of Antique Fern Prints, circa 1885

A set of two original antique chromolithographs of moonworts and adder's tongues from James Britten's European Ferns, published in London by Cassell, circa 1885, and sold together as one set of two sheets. Plate 29 shows five moonworts in a row, Botrychium simplex, virginicum, rutaefolium, ternatum and lunaria, each with its single sterile leaf and its spike of golden spore cases, the half moon leaflets of the common moonwort at the right. A cluster of spore cases magnified twelve times sits at the top. Plate 30 shows the adder's tongue, Ophioglossum vulgatum, and the small Atlantic adder's tongue, Ophioglossum lusitanicum, each a single oval leaf with a narrow spore bearing spike, drawn whole with their yellow roots. Four magnified details show the net of veins in the leaf and the rows of spore cases on the spike.

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.

The moonworts and the adder's tongues are the most unusual sheets in the book, primitive ferns with a single leaf and a spore spike, and they close the volume together. The Victorian fern craze turned plates like this into decoration almost as soon as they were printed, and they remain among the most popular botanical prints for interiors today. Hung side by side or one above another, they bring a calm run of green to a kitchen, a study or a bedroom.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Handling soiling along the edges of both sheets. Light foxing in the margins of one of the two sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the two sheets.

These are original antique prints, not modern reproductions. They are two original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split. This item is sold unframed.