HERBARIUM. CHROMOLITHOS. SCRAPBOOK. SOUVENIRS. [The Fern and - Lot 239

HERBARIUM. CHROMOLITHOS. SCRAPBOOK. SOUVENIRS. [The Fern and Flower Album, for preserving dried specimens of Ferns, Flowers, Seaweeds, &c.]. Ca 1880-1890. Large in-4 (27 x 32 cm). 3 pp. and 45 plates. Publisher's black percaline, cold-stamped floral decoration on front cover, beveled boards. Victorian-style botanical album transformed into an album mixed with chromos and cut-outs. 45 plates, with dried natural specimens of lichens, ferns or Pacific flora enriched with decorations of old chromos and cut-outs mixing natural history and decorative arts, including animal and figurative scenes. A rare and decorative album, witness to Victorian practices of artistic herbarium composition, combining botanical specimens and printed imagery. Traces of wetness, oxidation of paper, some tabs detached. Spine and covers slightly faded.