Set of 2 Antique Hand-Colored Fern Prints, Polypodium speluncae, 1806-1809

Name: Set of 2 Antique Hand-Colored Fern Prints, Polypodium speluncae, 1806-1809
Brand: Bartele Gallery
SKU: BG-14438-43
Price: 320 EUR
Availability: InStock

€320BG-14438-43

Interior designers: BarTrade members buy at their trade price. How it works

A set of 2 sheetsThis listing is 2 original sheets from the same publication, sold together and never split. The price is for the whole set. More sets

Shown framed for scaleYou receive the original sheets, unframed. Pieces may ship rolled. Ask us for a conservation framer near you or the project.

Buy this printAsk a question

Colors in this print

Paper tone · #DCD6BDRGB 220, 214, 18973%

Olive · #8D945ARGB 141, 148, 906%

Olive · #86865ERGB 134, 134, 946%

Olive · #737C48RGB 115, 124, 726%

Sage · #9F9D79RGB 159, 157, 1214%

Moss · #6F6E4CRGB 111, 110, 764%

Sheet: 20 cm × 24 cm (width × height)
Framed as shown: 38 cm × 42 cm
Shown on: Duck egg wall
Size: Small, up to 50 cm (20 in) framed
Date: 1806-1809
Technique: Copper Engraving
Color: Original hand color
Condition: Good
Stock no.: BG-14438-43

This is an original set of 2 antique hand-colored copper engravings of polypodys, sold together, from Christian Schkuhr's survey of the ferns and fern allies printed at Wittenberg between 1806 and 1809. The two halves of one plant. Schkuhr engraved Polypodium speluncae across two sheets, pars inferior and pars superior, and the frond only reads whole when both hang together. The 2 sheets are Polypodium speluncae, pars inferior and Polypodium speluncae, pars superior. They are the same size, printed from the same press and colored by the same hand, so they frame and hang as one group.

This is one of the 221 copper plates of Christian Schkuhr's volume on the cryptogamic plants, the ferns, club mosses, horsetails and water ferns that stand as the twenty-fourth class of the Linnaean system. Schkuhr drew the plants, cut the plates and published the work himself at Wittenberg, issuing it in nine parts between 1806 and 1809. The bibliography records it at Pritzel 8205, and the first impressions were printed on bluish paper, as this sheet is.

The sheet is a copper engraving finished in watercolor by hand, and the coloring is original to the period of publication. The wash sits over the engraved outline and varies from figure to figure in the way hand work does, with the greens laid in several strengths to separate the upper and lower surfaces of the frond. The paper carries the plate mark of the copper plate. Hung singly the plate makes a calm, graphic statement; grouped with others from the same volume it makes a wall. The uniform sheet size and the shared palette mean these plates frame and group easily, which is how most buyers use them, in a study, a bedroom, a garden room or a professional office.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked 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 both sheets.

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