Two Grape Varieties, Goededele and Hogmar, Knoop Hand-Colored, 1790

An original hand-colored copper engraving of grapes, two full bunches of two named sorts, lettered in engraved script "Druif Goededele." and "Druif Hogmar." and numbered "TAB. VIII" at the head of the sheet. One bunch is dark purple, each berry given its own round of deep wash with a reserved white highlight so the cluster reads as a mass of separate fruits rather than a single shape; the other is a pale translucent green, barely tinted, with a yellow warmth where the light passes through. Broad vine leaves and a curling tendril fill the upper part of the sheet. The original watercolor varies berry by berry and laps over the engraved outlines, which is how hand work of this date behaves.

The plate comes from Johann Hermann Knoop's Beschrijving en Afbeeldingen van de beste soorten van Appelen en Peeren, published at Amsterdam and Dordrecht by Allart, Holtrop, de Leeuw and Krap in 1790, with a preface by the Zutphen minister and naturalist Johannes Florentius Martinet. Knoop was gardener to the widow of the Frisian stadtholder at Leeuwarden and the first systematic Dutch pomologist. He drew every fruit from the living specimen, and the plates are lettered ad vivum to say so. The engraving is on copper and the color is original hand color in watercolor, laid over the engraved hatching.

Grapes were raised in Dutch hothouses and against sheltered walls, and a plate showing a named dark sort beside a named white one is a vintner's comparison as much as a decorative image. This is the showiest sheet in Knoop's third series: the two bunches fill the plate, the color contrast does the work, and the vine leaves tie it together. The third series carries no engraver's credit, so the drawing is attributed to Knoop alone. A grape plate is a natural choice for a dining room, a wine room or a kitchen, and hung singly in a dark frame it reads as confidently as a small oil.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Handling soiling along the bottom and top edges. Scattered foxing in the margin. All four corners complete. Minor edge wear, shallow nicks along the bottom.

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