FERNS. -- Ellen HARDING (1809-1893). Fern Album Containing, A Few of the Rarest, Commonest, and Prettiest, of the British and Foreign Ferns, By Ellen Harding. 1862-[1864 or later]. 2° (470 x 355mm). Mounted on guards throughout. Original calligraphic title in red and black ink, with carte-de-visite sized photograph pasted on, 2 leaves of calligraphic indices in red and black, 78 FINE ORIGINAL WATERCOLOURS OF FERNS, the subjects against a sprayed black ink background, each with identifying calligraphic legend on an integral trompe-l'oeil variously-coloured ribbon (or cornucopia [1], cartouche [2], book [1]), one dated 1864. Contemporary green morocco gilt, spine in seven compartments, lettered in one, the others with repeat pattern composed from various small flower tools, gilt turn-ins, g.e. (extremities lightly scuffed). A FINE PIECE OF VICTORIANA: the Victorians' interest in ferns has almost become a cliché, but was in fact only part of a much wider search to understand and codify the natural world. The 19th century was the age of the intelligent amateur, a time when the relative lack of knowledge and the leisure to pursue it allowed the lay-man or woman to contribute discoveries that were new to science. In pursuit of botanical knowledge many fine collections were assembled, and, in an effort to record these collections, the traditional social skill of drawing took on a distinctly scientific bias. Various families of plants became fashionable targets: Orchids; Camellias; Seaweeds and from the 1850s, Ferns. The present collection of accomplished watercolours was produced by pinning the living specimens to the thick paper (the pin-holes are still just visible on the versos), spraying black pigment around the outline of the ferns, removing them and later painstakingly painting in the images on the white silhouettes. The album is divided into two parts: 28 leaves of drawings of British ferns, followed by the second index leaf and then 49 leaves of foreign examples. Every specimen is identified on the colourful 'ribbons', as well as in the indices, and the number of specimens per leaf varies from one to eight. The method of production recalls Henry Bradbury's Nature-printing , and the images the chromolithographic work of the period.
FERNS. -- Ellen HARDING (1809-1893). Fern Album Containing, A Few of the Rarest, Commonest, and Prettiest, of the British and Foreign Ferns, By Ellen Harding. 1862-[1864 or later]. 2° (470 x 355mm). Mounted on guards throughout. Original calligraphic title in red and black ink, with carte-de-visite sized photograph pasted on, 2 leaves of calligraphic indices in red and black, 78 FINE ORIGINAL WATERCOLOURS OF FERNS, the subjects against a sprayed black ink background, each with identifying calligraphic legend on an integral trompe-l'oeil variously-coloured ribbon (or cornucopia [1], cartouche [2], book [1]), one dated 1864. Contemporary green morocco gilt, spine in seven compartments, lettered in one, the others with repeat pattern composed from various small flower tools, gilt turn-ins, g.e. (extremities lightly scuffed). A FINE PIECE OF VICTORIANA: the Victorians' interest in ferns has almost become a cliché, but was in fact only part of a much wider search to understand and codify the natural world. The 19th century was the age of the intelligent amateur, a time when the relative lack of knowledge and the leisure to pursue it allowed the lay-man or woman to contribute discoveries that were new to science. In pursuit of botanical knowledge many fine collections were assembled, and, in an effort to record these collections, the traditional social skill of drawing took on a distinctly scientific bias. Various families of plants became fashionable targets: Orchids; Camellias; Seaweeds and from the 1850s, Ferns. The present collection of accomplished watercolours was produced by pinning the living specimens to the thick paper (the pin-holes are still just visible on the versos), spraying black pigment around the outline of the ferns, removing them and later painstakingly painting in the images on the white silhouettes. The album is divided into two parts: 28 leaves of drawings of British ferns, followed by the second index leaf and then 49 leaves of foreign examples. Every specimen is identified on the colourful 'ribbons', as well as in the indices, and the number of specimens per leaf varies from one to eight. The method of production recalls Henry Bradbury's Nature-printing , and the images the chromolithographic work of the period.
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