Tamarind and Pistachio Nut Tree, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

This antique botanical print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows the tamarind and the pistachio, two trees grown for their edible pods and nuts. The heading reads Pflanzen XVIII and the plate is signed by the Viennese engraver Schmuzer above the mark II.B.42.

Figure 1 shows the tamarind, with fine pinnate leaves, a small spray of flowers and two long brown pods whose sour pulp was used in drinks, sweets and medicine. Figure 2 shows the pistachio tree, Pistacia vera, with rounded leaves and a hanging bunch of reddish nuts, and the kernel shown in and out of its shell at the letters a, b and c below the branch. Both were familiar imported delicacies in Vienna and Weimar around 1800, and the plate would appeal equally to a collector of food and kitchen prints.

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 II.B.42. Vienna volume II follows Weimar volume I, which appeared in 1790 to 1792, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The plate is signed J. X. Schmuzer in the lower margin, for Jacob Xaver Schmuzer, one of the Viennese engravers of this edition. 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 even toning, some show through of text from the reverse and small chips at the right edge.

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