Hortus Malabaricus Hand-Colored Botanical Engraving of the Talipot Palm, Rheede, Amsterdam, Circa 1682

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Hortus Malabaricus Hand-Colored Botanical Engraving of the Talipot Palm, Rheede, Amsterdam, Circa 1682

This is a rare and remarkably decorative … Read more Hortus Malabaricus Hand-Colored Botanical Engraving of the Talipot Palm, Rheede, Amsterdam, Circa 1682

This is a rare and remarkably decorative page from one of the great books of the seventeenth century. Hortus Indicus Malabaricus (The Garden of Malabar) was compiled by Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede, the Dutch governor of the Malabar Coast of India, and published in Amsterdam in twelve folio volumes between 1678 and 1693. It was the first comprehensive flora of tropical Asia, and its 794 copperplate engravings were drawn from living plants in Cochin with the help of local Indian physicians. This plate, Tab. 5 from the third volume of 1682, is one of a sequence devoted to the talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera), the giant fan palm whose leaves were used as sunshades and for writing, and which flowers only once at the end of its long life.

What makes this sheet so appealing on a wall is its abstraction. Instead of the whole tree, the engraver has laid out eight numbered studies of the palm’s sheathed young shoots, the green blade pushing out from overlapping husks, all washed by hand in soft rose, tan, straw and gray-green over crisp engraved hatching. The result reads almost like a modern still life, and it sits as happily with contemporary and mid-century furniture as it does in a traditional library or study. The sheet still shows the central fold of its original double-folio format and carries the PVL watermark of the Dutch papermaker Pieter van der Ley.

The print is floated between two panes of glass in a pale cream resin frame, so the antique paper reads against the wall color and the watermark and verso stay visible. Hang it alone above a console or desk, or as one of a group of natural history prints in a hallway or dining room; the muted palette works especially well against deep green, slate or warm white walls.

Dimensions
Height: 21½ inches (54.6 cm)
Width: 25½ inches (64.8 cm)

Marks
Engraved within the plate “Codda-pana. lat.” and “Tab. 5.”, the figures numbered 1 to 8 and lettered “a”. PVL countermark of Pieter van der Ley in the paper.

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge See less