Ten printer's specimens, copies of curious alchemical woodblock engravings from the 'Hortus Sanitatis' and other early sources, with captioned title and price.

Author: 
[English woodblock engraving; woodcuts; Georgian fine printing]
Publication details: 
Undated: early nineteenth century.
£850.00
SKU: 7488

On one side each of two leaves of thin laid paper (quality of tissue). Both leaves are good: lightly creased and spotted on aged paper. The first leaf (roughly 19 x 18 cm) carries six illustrations, arranged 2 x 3, and with the captions reading: 'Price 2s/6d | a way of purifying sea water'; 'Price 1s/6d | preparation Acid Sulphuric'; 'Price of block | 1s/- | Physician Galenical School'; 'Price 1/- | cold still'; 'Price 1/- | Pelican'; '2s/6d | distillation'. Printers blue pencil around third woodcut. The second leaf (roughly 24 x 18.5 cm) carries four illustrations, arranged 2 x 2, the largest two being roughly 8 x 6 cm. The captions read: 'Bufonites' (from the 'Hortus Sanitatis' of 1497, showing a man extracting a bezoar stone from the head of a frog); 'preparation medicinal earths'; 'obtaining draconites' and 'Hippocrates sleeve'. Along one margin: 'Please return specimens'. The 'Bufonites' engraving is certainly a skillful copy, and it may be that the cuts were originally produced for a Roxburghe-Club-type publication, before joining the printer's stock.