[NURSERYMAN'S GUIDE/ AMERICAN CHROMOLITHOGRAPHY]. "Plate Book. We Grow and Guarantee Fruit Trees, Grape Vines, Currant Bushes" [etc.]

William C. Moore & Co., Newark, New York State

Published by United Litho. and Printing Co. [and Vredenberg Co.], Rochester, NY, 1910

About this Item

Album of 66 leaves (plus one duplicate) of chromolithograph or half-tone illustrations (some printed in two or more colors) depicting plants, flowers, and trees (in some instances alongside homes), also of fruit specimens, all with full-page descriptive text on verso. Contemporary wrappers, printed in black on front cover with the name of the nursery William C. Moore & Co., recent black cloth spine (wrappers worn, signs of heavy use throughout, inscription inside front cover). With faults, and priced accordingly. AMERICAN ART AND BOOK PRODUCTION IN THE SERVICE OF COMMERCE: A MODEST NURSERYMAN'S FRUIT, FLOWER AND TREE SALES CATALOGUE, PRINTED IN VIBRANT COLORS. SEED CATALOGUES SUCH AS THIS ONE WERE HEAVILY USED AS VEHICLES OF SALE BY TRAVELING SEED PEDDLERS THROUGHOUT SMALL TOWN AMERICA. "Nurserymen's plates were an American innovation. [.] In design and coloring, these plates were more akin to folk painting than to the commercial art of their time" (Charles von Ravenswaay, "Drawn and Colored from Nature," in Antiques Magazine, March 1983, pp. 594-599). Vintage Nurseryman's Guides provide a "floracopia" of American chromolithography at its apogee. All the plates have descriptive text on the versos, giving name of the plant / tree / fruit useful information about color, fragrance, production, preferred growing season, and other particulars (such as taste, in the case of fruit). Our catalogue was issued by the William C. Moore & Co. of Newark, New York State, which evidently offered a wide selection indeed. Unusually, the text on our wrappers bears a curious attestation by the Arcadia National Bank, proclaiming that "in our opinion the [Nursery] is a reliable and responsible concern, with ample capital to carry on its large operations." The President and General Manager of the firm was at that time Wilson M. Gould, whose name appears as such in the Dec. 5, 1912 issue of Florists' Review (vol. 31, p. 82). Most fruit seed catalogues are undated because they were literally assembled according to which seeds were (or would be) in stock, as here. The most "recent" plate in the present nurseryman's guide is dated 1904.

Seller Inventory # 4203

Bibliographic Details

• Title: [NURSERYMAN'S GUIDE/ AMERICAN CHROMOLITHOGRAPHY]. "Plate Book. We Grow and Guarantee Fruit Trees, Grape Vines, Currant Bushes" [etc.]
• Publisher: United Litho. and Printing Co. [and Vredenberg Co.], Rochester, NY
• Publication Date: 1910
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Book Arts
  • Gardening