About this sheet
A set of three original antique chromolithographs of the hard fern, ostrich fern and holly fern from James Britten's European Ferns, published in London by Cassell, circa 1885, and sold together as one set of three sheets. Plate 1 shows the hard fern, Lomaria spicant, drawn as a full rosette rising from a mossy, lichen covered rock, the narrow fertile fronds standing upright above the spreading barren ones and the old fronds curled brown at the foot. Two enlarged pinnules, one barren and one fertile with its brown line of spores, are set at the upper right. Plate 2 shows the ostrich fern, Onoclea struthiopteris, its shuttlecock of arching green fronds rising from a grassy bank beside a lichened boulder, with the stiff brown fertile fronds standing in the center. Three enlarged pinnae fill the top of the sheet. Plate 20 shows the holly fern, Polystichum lonchitis, above the hard shield fern, Polystichum aculeatum, both drawn springing from their scaly brown crowns, the narrow toothed fronds of the first in deep green and the broad fronds of the second in fresh yellow green. Two fertile pinnae, natural size, stand at the left.
The plates come from European Ferns by James Britten, issued in London by Cassell in parts between 1879 and 1881 and bound up as one quarto volume with thirty colored plates. This copy carries the imprint Cassell and Company, Limited, London, Paris, New York and Melbourne, the style the firm adopted in 1883, so the sheets were printed for a later issue of the book, circa 1885. Britten, 1846 to 1924, worked in the Department of Botany at the British Museum and was a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and his text covers the ferns of the whole of Europe rather than of Britain alone. The plates were printed in color by Vincent Brooks, Day and Son of London, one of the foremost chromolithographic printers of Victorian England, and the lithographers' credit appears at the lower right of the image. The color is printed throughout, built up from separate stones, not applied by hand.
The hard fern, the ostrich fern and the holly fern each rise as a single upright crown of fronds, so the three sheets read as a matched row on the wall. Blair drew each plant whole, often in its habitat, and set enlarged details of the fronds and spore cases around it, so each sheet works both as a scientific record and as a picture. Framed in matching simple frames, the sheets make a coherent botanical group for a wall, a stair or a garden room.
Even age toning throughout. Marked handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets. Light foxing in the margins of two of the three sheets. Slight wear at the corners of two of the three sheets.
These are original antique prints, not modern reproductions. They are three original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
