Twenty Three Flowering Cacti, Antique Meyers Chromolithograph, circa 1910

About this sheet

Twenty three cacti in flower arranged as a composite group. This original antique natural history plate was printed in color by the Bibliographisches Institut for Meyers Grosses Konversations-Lexikon, the sixth edition of the great German encyclopedia, published in Leipzig and Vienna by the Bibliographisches Institut between 1906 and 1912, and it is lettered on the sheet with its German title, Kakteen. The plate shows the rat tail cactus, the saguaro, the queen of the night, the old man cactus with its white hair, the living rock cactus, the prickly pear, the melon cactus and the cochineal cactus among them, every one of them named on the sheet. It carries the imprint of the house at the foot together with the article it belongs to, Zum Artikel Kakteen.

The sixth edition of Meyers ran to more than twenty volumes and several hundred plates, and its colored plates were the showpiece of the whole undertaking. The Bibliographisches Institut had been founded in 1826 and by this date ran one of the largest lithographic printing works in Europe, with its own staff of draftsmen and its own color presses in Leipzig. The plates were drawn from specimens and from the collections of the day by named specialists, printed from a separate stone for each color, and bound in at the article they illustrate. That is why a Meyers plate holds its color so well after more than a century and why the fine lettering is still crisp.

Encyclopedia plates of this quality are collected now for exactly the reason they were made, which is that they set out a subject completely and clearly on a single sheet. This one belongs to the German article Kakteen, and it is the kind of image that rewards close looking as well as working at a distance. The modest sheet size suits a simple frame with a wide mat, and plates from the same edition group very well because they share a format, a palette and a typeface. A pair or a group of three hung together in a study, a kitchen, a consulting room or a hallway reads as a deliberate collection rather than as a single decorative print.

Even age toning. Handling soiling along the top edge. A few small foxing spots in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom left, bottom right and top left corners. Center fold, as issued.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. 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.