Fancy antique botanical illustrations of flowers will enhance your room’s décor by bringing the beauty of the garden outdoors, inside.
Fancy Antique Botanical Illustrations: Framed Bouquets
These are exquisite botanical illustrations published for the Fairy Bower in 1846. These are a lovely set of six hand colored lithographs framed and ready to hang. Rare and great early American prints. Early high quality, hand colored lithographs from the mid 19th Century. Exemplary of some of the best hand coloring produced at the time. A perfect combination of lithography and intense water coloring with archival framing. Set of six $2800.
Antique flower prints in Pink. English hand colored engravings by Curtis and Edwards.
Fancy Antique Botanical Illustrations. The colors in these English 19th Century hand colored copper plate engravings are bright and in good condition. Coming from English periodic botanical magazines by Curtis & Edwards, these are the foldouts so please see the folds. The folds are definitive clue that these antique flower prints are authentic antiques. Perfect décor for your traditional home. Or as a great gift for garden lovers! Each old print measures about 9 1/2 x 11″ to 12″ $95. Each. Double rag matting to 14×18″ an additional $45. each. Click here to contact us.
Fancy Botanical Illustrations satisfied the demand of Gardeners
The fancy flowers you see on this website are antique prints. That means they are over 100 years old. Some are hand-colored engravings and others are antique lithographs. There were many complex crafts involved in publishing realistic antique botanical illustrations like these. There was the art of creating the paper or paper making. Lithography and engraving was an art that took years to become proficient at. Finally, there was the art of hand coloring the illustrations. Only if you were great at watercolor illumination the final product was sellable. Every part from printing and publishing the work, book or subscription required individual skills of many professional craftsmen and their apprentices and artists. Selling the work and getting it the hand of the subscriber was a job in itself.
Craftsmen and Tradesmen had life long careers in the 17th, 18th & 19th Centuries.
Tradesmen in the old days, had lifelong careers. This was true throughout history of working trades, until the turn of the 20th Century. Journeymen and Apprentices severed their “employers” for several years, up to 7 and 10 years, for a pittance of room and board at best. To become a tradesman, apprenticeships were required by law. This was the only way that could go on to open your own shop or to work as a professional engraver, colorist or printer, themselves. Debtor’s prison was an unfortunate place to end up for those individuals that tried to fast track the system.
Subscribing to early botanical magazines became a status symbol.
There was huge interest & demand to see pictures of the fancy and finest varieties of flora being grown everywhere. Others wanted more knowledge on gardening. It was a status statement and one was instantly IN if they could afford to subscribe and learn all this new information. Subscribers were immediately a part of the frenzy as the stream of information was delivered by direct mail, generally on a monthly basis. Garden lovers were wild to receive their latest issue of the magazines they subscribed to. This was one of the great pastimes for young women, doctors, clergy and other wealthy individuals who had disposable income for such luxuries.
Phone: 413-245-4197 Email: oldprint@verizon.net.