du Monceau, Henri Louis Duhamel Pl. 16. “Jacynthe” [plum]

Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau.  Pl. 16. “Jacynthe.”  From Traité des Arbres Fruitiers, contenant leur figure, leur description, leur culture, &c. 

Paris, 1768.  12 ¼ x 10 (paper).  Engraving on laid paper.  Hand color.  Light horizontal printer’s wrinkle in middle of image. Multiple worm holes in top and bottom margins and a few in image at top.  Old masking tape on verso at top.  Else, fair condition.  

A print from an exquisite group of fruit prints done during the heyday of French botanical illustration.  These elegant cuttings of ripe fruit, seen also in cross section and with their blossoms, were done from drawings by Aubriet, Mlle. Basseport and Le Berriays.  They were then engraved by a group carefully picked artists.  They are unusual and important for the uncommon talent and care that went into their making.  These prints are a fine product of the period when botanical prints were just beginning to come into their own in France, all the more desirable for their rarity as fruit prints of the highest quality.  They do indeed live up to their reputation of coming from one of the “finest and rarest books on fruit, with many beautiful plates.”  Ref.:  Gordon Dunthorne, Flower & Fruit Prints of the 18th and early 19th centuries, p. 192.