Gum Arabic, Gum Tragacanth, Gum Olibanum, Gum Mastic c1855.

by Fitch, Walter Hood

Gum Plants antique print, Arabic, Tragacanth, Olibanum, Mastic. 
Gum Arabic Acacia seyal, Gum Tragacanth Astragalus tragacantha, Gum Olibanum Boswellia serrata, Gum Mastic Pistacio lentiscus.

Original hand-coloured steel engraving c1866 by James Bishop after Walter Hood Fitch for A History of the Vegetable Kingdom, embracing the physiology of plants, with their uses to man and the lower animals, and their application in the arts, manufactures and domestic economy. by William Rhind, lecturer on Botany, Marischal College, Aberdeen. Published in London by Blackie & Son of Glasgow, Edinburgh and London.

William Rhind (1797-1874) studied the herbal uses of botany during his medical course in Aberdeen, through his apprenticeship to an Elgin physician, during further studies in London, while he practised medicine and sold medicinal remedies in Elgin, and finally, in Edinburgh where there was better oppportunity to research and write about the uses of botany.

Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892) was one of the most skilled botanical draughtsmen of his time. Fitch engraved and lithographed thousands of his own botanical prints over the years. His skill is particularly evident in this series of multi-layered seemingly three-dimensional groups of botanical subjects for Rhind's 'Practical Applications of Botany'.

245 x 150cm (9.5/8 x 5.7/8 inches). A lovely delicately rendered botanical study which is showing its age ever so slightly - after all it's over 150 years of age.