Ripe and Unripe Figs on the Bough, Knoop Decorative Fruit Plate, 1790

An original hand-colored copper engraving of figs, five fruits on a leafy bough, lettered in engraved script with the Dutch name "Vijg." and numbered "TAB. VII" above the image. Three of the figs are ripe, swollen at the shoulder and washed in a dull violet that turns greenish at the neck, while two are still unripe and carry a flat green with only the faintest purple creeping in: the whole progress of a ripening fig read across one branch. The deeply lobed fig leaves are the other pleasure of the sheet, drawn with their veining engraved and then colored in a strong green that varies from leaf to leaf. The original washes cross the engraved outline in places and change in density within a single fruit.

Knoop's pomology appeared at Amsterdam and Dordrecht in 1790 from the presses of Allart, Holtrop, de Leeuw and Krap, carrying a preface by Johannes Florentius Martinet. The plates had first been cut for the Leeuwarden editions of 1758 and 1763 and were printed again here from the same coppers. Johann Hermann Knoop drew the fruit from life in the stadtholder's garden at Leeuwarden. The technique is copper engraving with original hand coloring, and the brushwork crosses the engraved outline in places, which is the plain evidence that the color was laid on by hand and not printed.

The fig is the most immediately decorative image in Knoop's third series, and it is also the most ambitious piece of horticulture: figs were grown in the Netherlands against sheltered walls and under glass, a connoisseur's fruit rather than an orchard crop. The large lobed leaves give this plate a scale and a boldness the berry sheets do not have, which is why it is the one most often chosen to hang on its own. No engraver is lettered on the sheet. In a mount with wide white space above a console table or in a green-painted room, the fig plate carries a wall by itself and still rewards a close look.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.

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