- Object name(s):
- Brief description:
- Botanical print of Bree's fern in green, depicting the stalk with multiple leaves which are larger at the bottom, getting smaller the further up the stalk they are.
- Collection:
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Associated concept:
- Prints
- Associated concept:
- Botanical art
- Current reproduction location:
- https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EL5390/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg
- Location type:
- Thumbnail
- Object history note:
- The South Kensington Museum register refers to this acquisition (14765) as "A few leaves from the newly invented process of Nature printing by Bradbury and Evans. 1854. Price 21 Shillings". The same source lists the process as 'Phytoglyphy' - from two Greek words for 'nature' and 'carving'. In this process two sheets of metal of unequal hardness are used to 'sandwich' the object to be nature printed - here the leaf, which leaves its impression in the softer plate. The Bradbury and Evans technique was in fact the subject of litigation between the British company and the Imperial Printing Works, Vienna, which claimed prior invention. William Bradbury's son Henry had been sent to see the process in Vienna and was accused of industrial espionage by Alois Auer the Viennese director. Auer published a broadside condemning Bradbury entitled (in abbreviation): 'Conduct of a Young Englishman named Henry Bradbury [...] after his return to his Native Country, in opposition to the Acknowledgments of Foreign Countries concerning the natural-printing process [..] the Conduct of Bradbury ascertained by the members of the Imperial Printing Office'.
- Object name:
- Object number:
- 14765:6
- Object production date:
- 1854
- Date - association:
- printed
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1854-01-01
- Date - latest:
- 1854-12-31
- Object production organisation:
- Bradbury & Evans
- Organisation's association:
- printers and publishers
- Physical description:
- Botanical print of Bree's fern in green, depicting the stalk with multiple leaves which are larger at the bottom, getting smaller the further up the stalk they are.
- Reproduction number:
- 2010EL5390
- Reproduction number:
- 2006AN2505
- Responsible department/section:
- PDP
- Technique:
- nature printing
- Text reason:
- Collections online record
Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/77f65418-f374-3b32-9d3a-53238c2d68d8
Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/77f65418-f374-3b32-9d3a-53238c2d68d8, Victoria and Albert Museum, CC BY-NC
Is there a problem with this record? Give feedback.