Set of 3 Hand-Colored Horsetail Engravings, Wood, Field and Water, 1806-1809

This is an original set of 3 antique hand-colored copper engravings of horsetails, sold together, from Christian Schkuhr's survey of the ferns and fern allies printed at Wittenberg between 1806 and 1809. Three horsetails in sequence, Tab. 166 to 168: the wood, field and water horsetail. Same size, same upright habit, the strongest green in the volume. The 3 sheets are Equisetum sylvaticum, Equisetum arvense and Equisetum fluviatile. They are the same size, printed from the same press and colored by the same hand, so they frame and hang as one group.

The plate comes from Christian Schkuhr's account of the twenty-fourth Linnaean class, the cryptogams, the plants that reproduce by spores rather than by flowers. Schkuhr, who was born at Pegau in 1741 and died at Wittenberg in 1811, worked first as a gardener, studied at the University of Wittenberg, and taught himself drawing and engraving so completely that he drew, engraved and published his own plates. The fern volume appeared in nine instalments between 1806 and 1809 and carries 221 plates, numbered to 173 with lettered supplements added as new material reached him.

This is an engraving on copper with original hand coloring, printed on the bluish paper that the first impressions of the work were issued on. The engraved line carries the structure and the watercolor carries the color, applied by hand so that no two copies of the plate are quite alike. Fern plates hang well because the subject is shape rather than incident, and a sheet like this reads clearly from across a room. It suits a study, a hallway, a bathroom or a kitchen, and it sits comfortably with other botanical work, with natural history prints and with plain modern interiors where a single green form on cream paper is enough.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets. Light foxing in the margins of two of the three sheets. Slight wear at the corners of one of the three sheets.

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