Gums. Gamboge, Benzoin, Caoutchouc, Butta Percha antique print c.1857.

by Fitch, Walter Hood

GUM PLANTS. Gamboge Hebradendron gamboagioides, Benzoin Styrax benzoin, Caoutchouc Siphonia elastica, Gutta Percha Isonandra gutta.

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). This lovely engraving has particularly clear crisp colour, but it also has a slight crease at left and bottom left, and a couple of soiling spots and top right tiny nick out of corner. Alll these imperfections should be covered by framing.