[NURSERYMAN'S GUIDE]. [AMERICAN CHROMOLITHOGRAPHY]. [Nurseryman's Guide / Sample Book / Fruit Seed Catalogue]

Album of 91 chromolithographs, principally by Stecher Lithograph Co. of Rochester. Later flexible smooth calf, inner hinges exposed. Plates with some wear or light soiling. ART IN THE SERVICE OF COMMERCE: AN AMERICAN NURSERYMAN'S FRUIT SEED CATALOGUE DEPICTING FULLY MATURED FRUIT IN VIBRANT CHROMOLITHOGRAPHY. SEED CATALOGUES SUCH AS THIS ONE WERE HEAVILY USED AS VEHICLES OF SALE BY TRAVELING SEED PEDDLERS THROUGHOUT SMALL TOWN AMERICA, AND THEREFORE ALMOST NEVER SURVIVE IN GOOD CONDITION, AS HERE. "Nurserymen's plates were an American innovation. They were made by various methods, the most distinctive being painted in watercolors. 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. Most plates have brief captions giving name of the plant and information on color, fragrance, taste, preferred growing season, and other particulars. Most fruit seed catalogues are undated because the plates were literally assembled according to which seeds were (or would be) in stock; however, several plates in our nurseryman's guide are dated, and range from 1887 to 1898. Most of the chromos in our collection are preserved in extremely fresh state and MUST BE SEEN to be fully appreciated.…