The announcement in Vienna of a new method of nature-printing, one that delivered breathtakingly beautiful results, captured the imagination of a young British entrepeneur. He deceided to discover the secret for himself. What followed according to one reviewer, was a tale 'worthy of Wilkie Collins'. Two ambitious men were brought low by the affair and one commited suicide in disgrace, or despair. The quality of the nature-prints was astonishing. Joseph Hooker announced the results were so good that 'the plates seem to surpass the specimens themselves in elegance and in colouring'. According to The Times it was 'as if the original specmens were pasted on paper'. But for mysterious reasons the process was abandoned and the method, lost. The few nature-prints that were made this way are now rare, sought-after and extremely valuable. Five years ago Pia Östlund, designer at Chelsea Physic Garden, set out to rediscover the lost technique of nature-printing. In this book, writer Simon Prett traces her determined qest and her attempt to repair broken connections between art, science and engineering. The book also tells the remarkable story of nature-printing and it shows how important things are sometimes lost in the rush of progress. / The Publisher
Limited edition of 75 copies (sold out)
Size: 160 × 250 mm
Details: Includes a signed copy of Pia’s first successful nature-print and tipped in titlepage vignette, monoprinted plate, pressed herbarium sample and a wood-engraving. 32 colour plates. Quarter morocco over patterned paper boards, gilt titles to spine.
Pages: 176 printed letterpress on Somerset Book White
TimPress
Also available in paperback
ISBN: 9780993484506
'Readers may be surprised to discover a book written in the manner of a detective story reviewed within these pages. Östlund's tale is both beautifully written and highly entertaining and this book can be thoroughly recommended as a rattling good read, as well as a fascinating account of the early history of nature printing, a technique little known today among art historians.' Print Quaterly
'Part essay, part story, author Simon Prett follows Östlund's mission to find out how the obscure process of nature printing was achieved, why this Victorian technique was invented and subsequently abandoned. A curious take unfolds…you can't help but be drawn into this intriguing journey too.' The Gardens Illustrated
