Rare 1814 Turpin Hand-Colored Engraving from FLORE MÉDICALE, TEA PLANT (Thé)

Description: Rare 1814 Hand-Colored Copperplate Stipple-Engraving from: FLOREMÉDICALE décritePar F. P. CHAUMETON DOCTEUR EN MÉDECINE PEINTEPar Mme. E[rnest] P[anckoucke], ET PAR P. J. F. TURPIN 1814 Pl. 339 THÉ.Thea viridis(Syn. Camellia sinensis) (Tea) Scarce original antique hand-colored botanical engraving from Chaumeton & Turpin's epic, monumental plate volumes of the Flore Médicale (Medical Botany), produced from 1814 to 1820. A most important early 19th century compendiums of paintings of known medicinal plants, engraved & colored in the fine stipple-engraved color illustrations in the style of Redouté by two of his most accomplished pupils, Pierre-Jean-François Turpin (1775-1840) and A.E. Panckoucke. These are gems. The drawing, composition, detail work in the stipple-engraving, the brilliant coloring 'A La Poupee' (colored in the plate) & hand-water-coloring are magnificent. It's also in superb condition with the colors as vibrant as they come. I'm listing a group of some of the best of them, this one quite glorious, a true find. The Artist:The French botanist and illustrator Pierre Jean François Turpin (1775 -1840) is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators of his time.In 1794 he was stationed in Haiti as a member of the French Army where he met botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau (1766-1854).Turpin and Poiteau collaborated in a study of Haitian flora; they collected an herbarium of some 1,200 plants, of which Turpin made drawings of a large number, and of which they together described about 800 species.Through his collaboration with Poiteau and other naturalists, Turpin created some of the finest watercolors and illustrations of plants that are known to exist. As a botanical artist Turpin achieved a fame equal to that of Redouté. He collaborated on a number of the most important botanical publications of the early nineteenth century. The Author:François-Pierre Chaumeton (1775 – 1819) was a French botanist and physician. He studied medicine, humanities and languages (particularly Greek) in Paris, afterwards serving as a surgeon in military hospitals. Finding military surgery distasteful, he opted for work as a pharmacist at Val-de-Grâce. He was an editor of the multi-volume "Dictionnaire des sciences médicales" (publisher Panckoucke 1812–1822. 60 volumes). He contributed numerous articles to The Dictionnaire des sciences médicales (a group of plates from those volumes are listed in my shop separately, also by Turpin & also magnificent). But his real passion was botany, & with Jean Louis Marie Poiret and Jean-Baptiste-Joseph-Anne-César Tyrbas de Chamberet, he was co-author of "Flore médicale". The Volumes:Published in eight volumes with 425 hand-colored, engraved plates, the Flore médicale was an epic, comprehensive illustrated work of Medical Botany. In the age that this work was produced, most of the known treatments available to medicine were from plants, many of which are also our favorite flowers, fruits, herbs & spices. These plates include wonderful renderings of many plants we use for cooking, like vanilla, pepper, onion, garlic, cacao, etc.The Medical Flora is the flora section of a major project, a work in sixty volumes, published from 1812 to 1822 by the same publisher, Charles-Louis-Fleury Joseph Panckoucke. The work was expanded to include grapes, melon, palms, pineapple, pomegranates, bananas, and other interesting but non-medicinal plants. The detailed illustrations were executed by Ernestine Panckoucke and Pierre Jean François Turpin, both master botanical illustrators. The Plates:Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved from original watercolor paintings by Turpin & Panckoucke. The engraving was done in the stipple technique which allows for delicate shading & modeling to more accurately represent the original painted drawing. The copper was hand-mined, smelted & rolled. The coloring was painstakingly done directly in the plate with multiple colored inks which were made from hand-ground minerals & pigments. The plates were printed onto handmade cotton rag paper, & they were usually hand sewn into handmade leather-bound books. Condition:Appears to be in good condition for a 210-year-old engraving. The hand-coloring appears to remain sharp & brilliant as the day it was painted. Minor age-toning & antiquarian character as is typical for a print this old. Please peruse the detailed photos. These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.Text Page(s): This one comes with original text page(s). I've added a scan of a sample cover page from one of the volumes, it's not part of the listing. About this gorgeous plant:Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree in the flowering plant family Theaceae. Its leaves, leaf buds, and stems can be used to produce tea. Common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree (unrelated to Melaleuca alternifolia, the source of tea tree oil, or the genus Leptospermum commonly called tea tree)Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of Camellia sinensis.After plain water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world.An early record of tea drinking dates to the third century AD, in a medical text written by Chinese physician Hua Tuo. It was popularized as a recreational drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and tea drinking subsequently spread to other East Asian countries. Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to Europe during the 16th century. During the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among the English, who started to plant tea on a large scale in British India.The various words for tea reflects the history of transmission of tea drinking culture and trade from China to countries around the world. Nearly all of the words for tea worldwide fall into three broad groups: te, cha and chai, present in English as tea, cha or char, and chai.In many cultures, tea is consumed at elevated social events, such as the tea party. Tea ceremonies have arisen in different cultures, such as the Chinese and Japanese traditions, each of which employs certain techniques and ritualised protocol of brewing and serving tea for enjoyment in a refined setting. One form of Chinese tea ceremony is the Gongfu tea ceremony, which typically uses small Yixing clay teapots and oolong tea.The Townshend Acts' taxation of imported tea in the British American colonies led to the Boston Tea Party in 1773 in which Bostonians destroyed a large shipment of taxed tea. Parliament responded with severe punishments in the Intolerable Acts 1774. The Thirteen Colonies drilled their militia units, and war finally erupted in Lexington and Concord in April 1775, launching the American Revolution. Size: 7-3/4" x 4-3/4" approximately.Shipping: Multiple prints combine into one USPS Flat-Rate envelope. If you'd like to combine & need more time to choose, please send a message & we'll do our best to oblige. If you're assessed multiple shipping for one combined package, we'll endeavor to refund any overage asap. Thanks for Visiting!

Price: 26.4 USD

Location: Great Barrington, Massachusetts

End Time: 2025-01-11T03:01:54.000Z

Shipping Cost: 11 USD