1908 - Cover Art from Miss Emma White's Seed Catalog

It is February 20, 2016.   It was 60º F. outside today!!

I am done with winter even though I fear it is not done with Connecticut...but who knows?! 

Anyway, I am in the mood for flowers and I just found this lithographed cover from Miss Emma White at the MERTZ DIGITAL COLLECTIONS.  I love the stippling.

Join me in dreaming of summer :-)

Larkspurs and Potatoes

1880 was a good year for color illustrations in the Vick catalog. A very nicely written short piece on these magnificent catalogs can be found at the New York Historical Society Museum & Library's site.  Written by "sue" last year, I enjoyed reading it.  

I love these turnip illustrations and their appearance on the page.  Why?  I don't know.

An Early 1866 James Vick Flower Catalog - Rochester, NY

 Ah...spring and the promise of summer flowers.  James Vick started to make that promise glow once inexpensive  chromolithography was available around 1880.

But, this first catalog is an early one from 1866, so it is visually plain in comparison.  The one color plate seems more like folk art than advertisement!

To think, the year after the Civil War people were looking at this catalog.

The b&w engravings have a formal charm I like a lot.

 

I forget where I read it, but some of these engravings of flowers may have been used by more than one seedsman in their catalogs.  An engraving business that specialized in botanical illustration to the seed trade would offer the "off the rack" plates for sale at a more attractive price than having your own illustrations custom engraved.  That left more money in the budget for interesting "bespoke" art.

 View the whole catalog, or download it in any format you like, from the Internet Archive.

1893 - A Disappointment; and Pansy Faced Sailors

James Vick's catalog would keep you busy reading for a long time.  It must have been a very welcome  delivery!                                                                                                                       
This catalog has a  chatty oddness that is charming.  The "novelties and specialties" at the front of the catalog were printed in violet ink.

(I found this ticket to the Fair somewhere online and wanted to use it...so here it is.)

Plain old black ink for the more regular offerings :-)

This ad was being used in magazines the same year.  Surreal pansy head dude is here too.