Henry Smith
Specimens of Nature Printing from Unprepared Plants. etc., etc.,
1857
Madras, India
This fine volume (of at least two variants) is an exceptional example of the technique of Nature Printing, a method of taking impressions in ink from the plant itself.
Henry Smith was a newspaper printer in Madras in the mid-19th century who used an iron press to record some of the useful, edible and ornamental plants growing in southern India. Many of the species represented here are key plants used in Ayurvedic medicine.
Amongst the one hundred plates are impressions of Ficus carica (The Edible Fig) and Brinjal (Aubergine); Ficus indica (The Banyan Tree), the national tree of India, which is considered sacred and said to have been used to achieve enlightenment; and Bombax malabaricum (Red Cotton Tree) used for centuries as a male aphrodisiac.
We hope you will enjoy this delightful, rare volume of exotic foliage but watch out, there is a snake in paradise…
