PHYTHANTHOZA ICONOGRAPHIA. Pl. 579.
Regensburg: H. Lentz and H.G. Neubauer, et al. c. 1745. First edition.
Mezzotint engraving, printed in color, finished by hand, 12.75 x 8.25 inches, platemark (approx); 15.25 x 9.5 inches, overall (approx). Neatly disbound in some earlier century, else a very vibrant example of a hand colored mezzotint engraving. The individual botanicals in this plate are: a. Horminium seu salvia Sylevestris foliis pictis, b. Horminium pratense foliis serratis flore coeli coloris, c. Horminium Sclarea dictum, Orvale, Scharlen, d. Horminium syriacum flore albo magno. The print is showcasing the differences between cultivated garden Clary Sage (Horminum) and its wild woodland counterpart (Salvia sylvestris).
Drawn from Johann Wilhelm Weinmann’s Phytanthoza Iconographia, this dazzling print is part of a riotous celebration of plants, trees, shrubs, herbs, flowers, fruits, mushrooms, and trailing vines. Printed in color and delicately finished by hand, the series stands among the earliest triumphs of color printing and marks the first published collection to feature the work of George Dionysus Ehret, one of the eighteenth century’s most admired botanical artists. Other artists/engravers included in this work are Bartholomaus Seuter, Johann Elias Ridinger, and Johann Jakob Haid. In Great Flower Books, Satcheverall Sitwell refers to this set as the "pioneering work of botanical prints engraved to be inked in color." Very good.
NISSEN2126. DUNTHORNE 327. SITWELL/BLUNT, Great Flower Books, p. 151, 166.
.Price: $275.00