Benthamia fragifera

$160.00 ~~$320.00~~

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Benthamia fragifera

Here we witness one of the first attempts using a steel plate instead of a copper plate for printing fine quality botanical prints. First used in England about 1820 it soon replaced the "soft" copper material. This astonishingly fine steel aquatint shows how much diligence and artistic attention the new medium received by the artists experimenting with it. After all they were expected to show that the copper plate could indeed be replaced.

Steel aquatint in original hand coloring. Engraved after Miss Drake for the "Transactions"
of the Royal Horticultural Society of London. Ca 1820.

Very l ight fraying on left and right edges. Light crease along bottom edge.

30.2 x 24 cm ( 11.8 x 9.4 ")