Bilberry, Lingonberry and Cranberry, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1805

About this sheet

This antique botanical print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows three wild berries of the heath and bog, the bilberry, the lingonberry and the cranberry. The heading reads Pflanzen LXXXIII and the Vienna mark VII.B.47 is engraved at lower right.

Figure 1 is the bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus, a small shrub with toothed leaves, pink bell flowers and ripe blue black berries. Figure 2 is the lingonberry or cowberry, with glossy leaves and a bunch of bright red fruit. Figure 3 is the cranberry, a creeping plant with tiny leaves and nodding pink flowers with swept back petals, and a single berry at b. All three were gathered in the forests of Central Europe for jams, sauces and dyes, and the plate is one of the most cheerful in the botanical series.

Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747 to 1822) began his Bilderbuch fuer Kinder in Weimar in 1790 as a picture encyclopaedia for young readers, and over four decades it grew to almost 1,200 plates on plants, animals, peoples, antiquities and the sciences. Its success led to other editions, and this sheet comes from the Vienna edition published by Anton Pichler as the Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend, with text in German and French. The Vienna plates were newly engraved after the Weimar originals, keep the Weimar subject numbering in a heading in German, Latin and French, and carry a volume and plate number in the lower margin, here the mark VII.B.47. Vienna volume VII follows Weimar volume IV, which appeared in 1802, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The plate is a copper engraving with original hand colour, as the Vienna volumes were issued coloured.

A plate like this suits a kitchen, study or garden room, and it hangs well in a group with other Bertuch botanical sheets of the same size. For a collector it is also a neat example of how the Bilderbuch travelled beyond Weimar in the years around 1800.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, a few small spots and minor nicks confined to the margins; the image is clean and strong.

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.