Two Flowering Tree Branches, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

This antique botanical print comes from the Vienna edition of Bertuch's Bilderbuch and shows two flowering tree branches under the heading Pflanzen LXX, with the Vienna mark VI.B.37 at lower right. The specific plants are not yet established and are described here only from what the plate shows.

Figure 1 is a branch with toothed, pointed leaves, a spray of small yellow flowers with red stamens, and a pair of pale elongated winged fruits. Figure 2 is a branch with smooth pinnate leaves and a rounded head of small white flowers among bluish berries. The companion text leaf that would name them is not present, and the identification will be confirmed before the plate is offered.

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.37. 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, a small stain in the lower margin and minor wear at the right edge; the image is clean and fresh.

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