PAIR OF LARGE RARE 1855 "NATURE PRINTING" FERNS

Extremely Rare Pair of Original " Nature Printing Ferns " from The Ferns of Great Britain & Ireland, by Henry Bradbury: Printed by Bradbury in London in 1855: ( 1 ) " POLYSTICHUM ACULEATUM " and ( 2 ) " LASTREA DILATATA GLANDULOSA ": each sheet measuring 21 1/2 inches by 14 inches ( The full original sheets without the usual trimming ): custom framed under glass: frame size of both is 22 1/2 by 15 inches.

The Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland was a book published in 1855 that featured 51 plates of Nature printing by Henry Bradbury. The text was a scientific description of all the varieties of ferns found in the those islands. The author of this work was the botanist Thomas Moore, the editor was john Lindley. The printing process known as Nature Printing, was an extremely difficult and rare technique, involving impressing the actual ferns on a soft ground printing plate.

The book was released at a time when ferns motifs were popular in Britain, which along with William Grosart Johnstone's The Nature-Printed British Seaweeds (London, 1859-1860), featured Bradbury's nature printing process. The publisher of the work was Bradbury and Evans. Bradbury patented the process after he seeing the invention of Alois Auer, a subsequent dispute arose as to its originator.

Despite a high level of interest for a time, the technique, because of its difficulty, was not employed extensively in any subsequent English works. Bradbury, along with Auer, believed the technique to be an enormous advance in printing. However, the plants and other subjects that could be successfully printed in this way were few. Ferns were one of the few plants with a form that could be replicated, the shape of the fronds being largely two dimensional.

In this work the ferns, a plant highly suited to the process, were impressed upon soft lead plates. These were electroplated to become the printing plate, the details of the fronds and stem were hand-coloured at this stage. The resulting image was in two colours and provided a highly detailed and realistic depiction of the species.

NOTE: Both prints are beautifully framed under glass in very fine antique style painted frames by Prints Etc, the rare print dealer and noted custom framer ( condition is excellent  ). Compare my prices with those of other rare print dealers, which range from $950 to $1,200 each for these same images.

These works are fully guaranteed.

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