The Colored Fruit Book: for the use of Nurserymen, containing accurate Specimens of Colored Fruits and Flowers carefully drawn and colored from nature, and designed to represent a medium and fair size of each particular fruit. It has been the design of the Publisher of this Series of Colored Fruit Plates, to place before the purchaser of Fruit Trees as faithful a representation of the Fruit as it is possible to make by the Process adopted

Dewey, D.M.

Published by D.M. Dewey, Rochester, 1860

About this Item

Rochester, N.Y.: D.M. Dewey, 1860. Quarto (11 3/16" x 8 3/4", 284mm x 223mm): binder's blank, a two-color lithographed title-page, 56 hand-colored lithographed plates, 6 chromolithographed plates and 2 two-color lithographed plates. Bound in half black morocco (rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down) over cloth boards. On the front cover, a diced red morocco title-label gilt, with EDWARD TAYLOR gilt below the rule. At the spine edge of the front boards, H.H. WASHBURN gilt. On the spine, five panels. Rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down. Some wear to the extremities, with overall soiling. Several of the plates re-inserted and strengthened at the margins. A dozen plates tanned, with staining to about half a dozen, and 2 plates trimmed at the bottom edge. Some heightening with gum arabic. Pencil ownership inscriptions on the title-page of Edward Taylor, Russell Muslin (?) and an additional owner whose name has been partly trimmed. Faint pencil ownership (G.M. Hooky?) on the recto of the first free end-paper. As nurserymen traveled to populate the farms and gardens of the nation, sample-books such as the present item were an invaluable assistance, surpassing mere description and second only to specimens, which were too numerous to be transported effectively. The accuracy and vividness of the plates' coloration was paramount in conveying the beauty and appeal of various cultivars and specimens. Each nursery could select from among Dewey's plates to match their own stock. The plates were either proper hand-colored lithographs (see, e.g., Trollopes Victoria Strawberry, whose leaves remain uncolored), lithographs colored by stencil and with details added freehand (Ravenswaay, 20: "an innovation in American art"), or in a few cases chromolithographs proper. Most of the plates come from Dewey's series, but some are from others (presumably stock Dewey did not carry). The lithographers, when listed, were E(dmund) B(urke) & E(lijah) C(hapman) Kellogg of Hartford, Connecticut. The Kellogg firm, in its multiple iterations and configurations (1830-early XXc), were the major rival to the firm of Currier & Ives. The particular set of plates in the present volume -- apples and pears, strawberries, raspberries and stone fruit, as well as trees and ornamental flowers -- must correspond to the stock held by the owners who left their marks on the book. Edward Taylor and H.H. Washburn were both Kansas nurserymen; Taylor in the 1860's (Edwardsville), Washburn in the 1910's (Junction City). The state of the volume happily reflects its use, as it were, in the field. Kabelac, Karl Sanford. "Nineteenth-Century Rochester Fruit and Flower Plates." University of Rochester Library Bulletin 35 (1982), pp. 93-113; Rapahel, An Oak Spring Pomona 64; Charles van Ravenswaay, A Nineteenth-Century Garden (1977). Seller Inventory # 6JLR0142

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Colored Fruit Book: for the use of ...

Publisher: D.M. Dewey, Rochester

Publication Date: 1860

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Good

Edition: First.