Trapp Avocado antique print by D.G. Passmore, c1905

by Passmore, Deborah Grisscom

Antique print of Avocado by Passmore circa 1905.

Original colour-printed lithograph by Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840-1911), published in New York in 1905 by Julius Bien & Co. for the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture. A skilled botanical artist who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture Division of Pomology for 19 years, 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.

Between 1897 and 1920 Yearbooks were published to illustrate the wide range of fruit produced in the United States. From 1905 to 1925, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station published a series of seven monographs on hardy fruits as part of their annual report.  Ulysses Prentiss Hedrick (1870-1951), continued the series over a period of 18 years, with larger photolithographs for six volumes on grapes, plums, cherries, peaches, pears and small fruits. As they were published essentially to promote the growing of fruit in the United States, there was not an enormous circulation, so these beautiful illustrations are rarely seen today.

Size is 23 x 14cm (9 x 5.5 inches). This antique print is in fine condition, except for slight ageing of the paper. The white marks are reflection from scanner bulb.