1757 Elizabeth Blackwell Herbal
GUEST:
It belonged to my father, and when my father passed away, my mother had it for a while, and then she gave it to me.
APPRAISER:
These herbals...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...which are very elaborate to produce, very expensive to buy…
GUEST:
Right, right.
APPRAISER:
...were probably done for university libraries, important private libraries...
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
...amateur botanists, of which there were large numbers, and physicians.
GUEST:
Yeah, that's what I thought.
APPRAISER:
Because all the plants in this book are of medicinal use.
GUEST:
Yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER:
One of the things that's so unusual about this book-- this one's by a woman.
GUEST:
Right, Elizabeth Blackwell.
APPRAISER:
Elizabeth Blackwell, right. She was the wife of a physician to the king of Sweden. And she had an interest in medical botany, and was obviously a fine artist herself. And this book is the result of her botanical drawings over a long period of time. This is the German edition, with the text both in German and in Latin.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Published Nuremberg, 1757. The nice thing about it is the hand coloring here.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
This was a common way to produce fine illustrated books in the 18th century.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And there's gilt here. The lettering is picked out in real gold. Watercolor is used for the rest. The effect is quite beautiful.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Let's look at an internal page. And you can tell what that plant is.
GUEST:
Yeah, a poppy.
APPRAISER:
A poppy. And what was done is a copper plate engraving…
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...and then a colorist would carefully hand-color the stems, the leaves, the flower.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Let's look at another one-- a cucumber.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And cucumbers, of course, had medicinal properties...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...in the 18th century. I don't know if they do today. Now, let's talk a bit about conservation issues.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Basically, the book is falling apart. Since it's an important and a valuable old book...
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
You need to have it rebound.
GUEST:
Right, okay.
APPRAISER:
You need to spend a few hundred dollars at least...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
...to have a good-quality binding...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...have the pages resewn. In this present condition...
GUEST:
Yeah?
APPRAISER:
I would still say it was worth somewhere in the range of $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST:
Are you serious?
APPRAISER:
Yeah. It's a very important botanical book.
GUEST:
Oh, wow.
APPRAISER:
Some of the better botanical illustrations of the 18th century are right in this book.
GUEST:
Oh!
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