Poison Ivy and Poison Sumac, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

This antique botanical print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows poison ivy and poison sumac, two North American plants notorious for their irritant sap. The heading reads Pflanzen LXXIII and the Vienna mark VI.B.47 is engraved at lower right.

Figure 1 is poison ivy, then Rhus toxicodendron, with its typical leaves of three leaflets and small clusters of greenish flowers. Figure 2 is poison sumac, Rhus vernix, with pinnate leaves on a bright red stalk, a spray of small flowers and a hanging cluster of pale fruit. Both cause severe skin rashes, and the Bilderbuch included them as a warning as much as a curiosity, since they were grown in some European gardens and parks. The pale coloring and clear leaf shapes make it an elegant plate despite its subject.

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 VI.B.47. Vienna volume VI follows Weimar volume III, which appeared in 1798, 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 ink blots and a stain in the left margin, and chips at the upper right edge; the image is clean.

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