Hiley Peach with half. Fine lithograph. Deborah Passmore c1903.

by Passmore, Deborah Grisscom

Whole and Half Peach antique print by Passmore.

Original colour-printed lithograph by Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840-1911) for the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, published in New York in 1903 by A. Hoen & Co. Baltimore. Passmore received a strict Quaker education prior to moving from Delaware to study at the School of Design and Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She was a skilled botanical artist who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture Division of Pomology for 19 years.

Before the widespread use of photography, between 1897 and 1925, artists were employed by the United States Department of Agriculture for watercolours of food growing in the U.S. Yearbooks were published to promote the cultivation of fruit and vegetables. There was not an enormous circulation, so these beautiful illustrations are rarely seen today.

Fine condition. Size 23 x 14cm (9 x 5.5 inches).