Ipecacuanha and Contrayerva Medicinal Roots, Antique Bertuch Print, circa 1812

This antique botanical print from Bertuch's Bilderbuch shows two medicinal roots from tropical America, ipecacuanha and contrayerva. The heading reads Pflanzen CXXI and the Vienna mark XIII.B.24 is engraved at lower right.

Figure 1 is read as ipecacuanha, a low plant with paired oval leaves and a long knotted and ringed root, the source of the emetic drug ipecacuanha. Figure 2 is contrayerva, Dorstenia, with lobed leaves, a scaly rhizome and curious flat, fleshy flower heads held on stalks, a root once used as an antidote to poisons, as its Spanish name suggests. The two plants are drawn with great attention to texture, and the plate is a fine addition to a collection of apothecary prints.

Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747 to 1822) began his Bilderbuch fuer Kinder in Weimar in 1790 as a picture encyclopaedia for young readers, and over four decades it grew to almost 1,200 plates on plants, animals, peoples, antiquities and the sciences. Its success led to other editions, and this sheet comes from the Vienna edition begun by Anton Pichler as the Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnuegen der Jugend, with text in German and French; Pichler issued the first ten volumes, and the later volumes, including this one, are believed to have been issued by B. Ph. Bauer in Vienna. The Vienna plates were newly engraved after the Weimar originals, keep the Weimar subject numbering in a heading in German, Latin and French, and carry a volume and plate number in the lower margin, here the mark XIII.B.24. Vienna volume XIII follows Weimar volume VII, which appeared in 1810, so this plate was published no earlier than that. The plate is a copper engraving with original hand colour, as the Vienna volumes were issued coloured.

A plate like this suits a kitchen, study or garden room, and it hangs well in a group with other Bertuch botanical sheets of the same size. For a collector it is also a neat example of how the Bilderbuch travelled beyond Weimar in the years around 1800.

The sheet is in good condition for its age, with light toning, a few small spots of foxing mainly in the upper left margin and a small nick at the right edge.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.