Everbearing Peach and Halved Peach lithograph. Deborah Passmore c1905.

by Passmore, Deborah Grisscom

Whole and Half Peaches 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 1905 by Julius Bien & Co. New York. Deborah 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 to create watercolours of food crops growing in USA. Yearbooks were illustrated with beautiful lithographs to promote the cultivation of fruit and vegetables. There was not an enormous circulation, so these beautiful illustrations are rarely seen today.

This lithograph is in fine condition except for missing a tiny corner of paper at top right. Print measures 230 x 145mm (9 x 5.75 inches).