Item #140947465 [Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co. Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.
[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.

[Nurseryman's Sample Book] Cabinet Fruit and Flower Plates, Colored from Nature, and Lithographed by Stecher Lithograph Co.

Rochester, NY: Stecher Lithograph Co., [1888?].

Late Victorian nursery salesman's sample book of chromolithographic plates advertising fruits, nuts, and flowers. 55 unnumbered color plates including title, each approx. 8 x 5-1/2 inches, descriptive text at lower edge. Early homemade covers of coarse-weave brown cloth over boards, marbled endpapers. Very Good with lean to spine, offsetting to blank facing pages, and light toning and moderate soiling throughout. Some plates annotated with pricing, date 1888 (likely taken from copyright year on several plates) written on title page. Remnant of paper label once tipped to back free endpaper laid in.

The Stecher Lithograph Company opened in Rochester, New York in 1887. The city was a leading American nursery center, and the nursery salesmen needed colorful and enticing images to sell their wares. The mass reproduction of photographs wasn't yet possible, and chromolithography was advertisers' medium of choice. The resulting images are painterly and brilliant. Most of the plates follow the common practice of shading by layering color over a neutral-tint underlayer, but a few shade strictly with color, creating an almost abstract effect. Several plates combine lithography with the new technique of half-tone printing. A charming and scarce bit of Americana marking the changing times. Item #140947465

Price: $1,500

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