Plates of bird eggs detailed up enough that you feel like you are peeking in their nest. Victorian. Taken from Francis Orpen Morris’ 1853 work “A natural history of the nests and eggs of British birds.”
Category: Plates (llustrations) from books
A selection of chapter headings from an very early edition in German of “Märchen aus 1001 Nacht” (One Thousand and One Nights). Illustrated by German artist and illustrator Carl Offterdinger (1829-1889). I can’t find an exact publishing date but mid 19th century and published in Stuttgart with a translation by Loewe of the French.
Chapter heading artwork. Carl Offterdinger, illustrator. In the public domain due to age.
And many many thanks to my fellow pinterest member Marlen Osman whose grandmother this book belonged to. Wishing the wonderful Offterdinger illustrations to find a wider audience, she emailed me and then sent me a file with these images and more which I’ll create posts from soon. Sarah.
Sea shells, plates from William Swainson’s “Zoological illustrations, or, Original figures and descriptions of new, rare, or interesting animals : selected chiefly from the classes of ornithology, entomology, and conchology, and arranged on the principles of Cuvier and other modern zoologists” which was published in London between 1820 and 1823.
Fantastical fish, some real, some imaginary. Taken from Louis Renard’s work “Poissons, ecrevisses et crabes, de diverses couleurs et figures extraordinaires, que l’on trouve autour des isles Moluques et sur les côtes des terres Australes: peints d’après nature …” The first edition came out in 1718 and 1719. These are taken from the second edition, published in Amsterdam in 1754.
Colorful plates from M. E. Chevreul’s work “The laws of contrast of colour and their application to the arts of painting, decoration of buildings, mosaic work, tapestry and carpet weaving, calico printing, dress, paper staining, printing, military clothing, illumination, landscape, and flower gardening.” Published in 1861 in London and New York by Routledge, Warne and Routledge, an English translation of the French.
More beautiful American wildflowers taken from Emma C. Embury’s 1845 book “American Wildflowers in their Native Haunts.”
More from Owen Jones “The Grammar of Ornament,” published in London in 1910. Collections of the University of Wisconsin.
Botanical prints of tropical flowers. More from Nancy Anne Kingsbury Wollstonecraft’s 1828 “Specimens of the Plants and Fruits of the Island of Cuba.”
Plates from J. P. Morgan’s privately printed up “Catalogue des Porcelaines Françaises de m. J. Pierpont Morgan.” From 1910. Something to look through on trips when he was away from his collection, no doubt.
Drawings of wildflowers taken from the United States Army Corps of Engineers 1848 work “Notes of a military reconnaissance, from Fort Leavenworth, in Missouri, to San Diego, in California, including parts of the Arkansas, Del Norte, and Gila Rivers.” C. B. Graham, lithographer.
