Long before photography, the only way to record a plant precisely was to draw it, and the botanical artists of the 19th century turned that necessity into an art form. Herbarium is our tribute to those plates: a single specimen, rendered as a hand-coloured copperplate engraving, quiet, exact and timeless.
The tradition we're drawing on
Every plate is built the same way, in the lineage of Redouté and Curtis's Botanical Magazine:
- Fine engraved linework, the precise, patient line of a copperplate.
- Soft naturalistic watercolour, muted, botanical colour on a warm cream ground, never garish.
- The Latin binomial beneath, letterpressed in Baskerville italic, so each plate reads as a page from a collector's folio.
Because every specimen sits on the same cream paper with the same lettering, the collection grows like a real herbarium, and a cluster of them brings a calm, scholarly order to a wall.
The first pressings
The opening set spans the delicate to the architectural:
| Specimen | The character |
|---|---|
| Southern Magnolia | the waxy bloom that anchors the whole series |
| King Protea | the architectural crown of the cape |
| Blue Passion Flower | a diagram of a flower, drawn by nature |
| Bird of Paradise | the strelitzia in full plumage |
| Oriental Poppy | crushed-silk petals in vivid red |
| Bearded Iris | the classical fleur-de-lis, from life |
Made to actually live with
The delicacy is only half of it. Every Herbarium plate is printed on the same 200 gsm matte paper as the rest of the catalogue: smooth, glare-free, and made to sit flat behind plexiglass. (More on paper in Paper Weight, Explained.)
Botanical plates are the classic gallery-wall building block. A natural wood frame warms the cream paper, and three specimens together read like a page from an old folio.
Questions, answered
What sizes and ratio are the prints?
Every design is composed in a clean A4 (70:99) portrait ratio, so it frames beautifully in standard sizes without awkward cropping. See the full print specifications.
Where do you ship?
To Switzerland, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, with shipping included in the price. See Shipping for delivery estimates by country.
Will more specimens be added?
This is the first pressing. We'll keep adding flora to the collection, so it's worth checking back before you plan your wall.
Ready to start your own herbarium?