Rare 1814 Turpin Hand-Colored Print FLORE MÉDICALE, MENTHE, PEPPERMINT (Poivrée) - Over 200 Years Old!

Scarce original antique hand-colored botanical engraving from Chaumeton & Turpin's epic, monumental plate volumes of the Flore Médicale (Medical Botany), produced from 1814 to 1820.

A most important early 19th century compendiums of paintings of known medicinal plants, engraved & colored in the fine stipple-engraved color illustrations in the style of Redouté by two of his most accomplished pupils, Pierre-Jean-François Turpin (1775-1840) and A.E. Panckoucke.

These are gems. The drawing, composition, detail work in the stipple-engraving, the brilliant coloring 'A La Poupee' (colored in the plate) & hand-water-coloring are magnificent. It's also in superb condition with the colors as vibrant as they come. 

The Artist:

The French botanist and illustrator Pierre Jean François Turpin (1775 -1840) is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators of his time.

In 1794 he was stationed in Haiti as a member of the French Army where he met botanist Pierre Antoine Poiteau (1766-1854).

Turpin and Poiteau collaborated in a study of Haitian flora; they collected an herbarium of some 1,200 plants, of which Turpin made drawings of a large number, and of which they together described about 800 species.

Through his collaboration with Poiteau and other naturalists, Turpin created some of the finest watercolors and illustrations of plants that are known to exist. 

As a botanical artist Turpin achieved a fame equal to that of Redouté. He collaborated on a number of the most important botanical publications of the early nineteenth century.

The Author:

François-Pierre Chaumeton (1775 – 1819) was a French botanist and physician. He studied medicine, humanities and languages (particularly Greek) in Paris, afterwards serving as a surgeon in military hospitals. Finding military surgery distasteful, he opted for work as a pharmacist at Val-de-Grâce.  He was an editor of the multi-volume "Dictionnaire des sciences médicales" (publisher Panckoucke 1812–1822. 60 volumes). He contributed numerous articles to The Dictionnaire des sciences médicales (a group of plates from those volumes are listed in my shop separately, also by Turpin & also magnificent). But his real passion was botany, & with Jean Louis Marie Poiret and Jean-Baptiste-Joseph-Anne-César Tyrbas de Chamberet, he was co-author of "Flore médicale".

The Volumes:

Published in eight volumes with 425 hand-colored, engraved plates, the Flore médicale was an epic, comprehensive illustrated work of Medical Botany. In the age that this work was produced, most of the known treatments available to medicine were from plants, many of which are also our favorite flowers, fruits, herbs & spices. These plates include wonderful renderings of many plants we use for cooking, like vanilla, pepper, onion, garlic, cacao, etc.

The Medical Flora is the flora section of a major project, a work in sixty volumes, published from 1812 to 1822 by the same publisher, Charles-Louis-Fleury Joseph Panckoucke. The work was expanded to include grapes, melon, palms, pineapple, pomegranates, bananas, and other interesting but non-medicinal plants. The detailed illustrations were executed by Ernestine Panckoucke and Pierre Jean François Turpin, both master botanical illustrators.

The Plates:

Every part of these prints was made by hand: Hand drawn & engraved from original watercolor paintings by Turpin & Panckoucke. The engraving was done in the stipple technique which allows for delicate shading & modeling to more accurately represent the original painted drawing. The copper was hand-mined, smelted & rolled. The coloring was painstakingly done directly in the plate with multiple colored inks which were made from hand-ground minerals & pigments. The plates were printed onto handmade cotton rag paper, & they were usually hand sewn into handmade leather-bound books.

Condition:

Appears to be in good condition for a 210-year-old engraving. The hand-coloring appears to remain sharp & brilliant as the day it was painted. Age-toning & antiquarian character as is typical for a print this old. Please peruse the detailed photos.

These prints are very old & may have minor imperfections expected with age, such as some typical age-toning of the paper, oxidation of the old original watercolors, spots, text-offsetting, artifacts from having been bound into a book, etc. Please examine the photos & details carefully.

Text Page(s): This one comes with original text page(s). I've added a scan of a sample cover page from one of the volumes, it's not part of the listing.

About this gorgeous plant:

• Peppermint (Mentha piperita) a member of the tribe Mentheae in the subfamily Nepetoideae. It is an herbaceous, rhizomatous, perennial plant, & the source of Menthol, the peppermint flavoring & peppermint tea ~

• Although the genus Mentha comprises more than 25 species, the one in most common use is peppermint.
  

• It's apparently a natural hybrid species of mint, a cross between watermint and spearmint.

• Indigenous to Europe and the Middle East, the plant is now widely spread and cultivated in many regions of the world. It is occasionally found in the wild with its parent species.

• Peppermint has a high menthol content in its essential oil. Peppermint oil has a high concentration of natural pesticides, mainly pulegone and menthone. It is known to repel some pest insects, including mosquitos, and has uses in organic gardening. It is also widely used to repel rodents.

• Fresh or dried peppermint leaves are often used alone in peppermint tea or with other herbs in herbal teas (tisanes, infusions). Peppermint is used for flavoring ice cream, candy, fruit preserves, alcoholic beverages, chewing gum, toothpaste, and some shampoos, soaps, and skin care products.

• Candy canes are one of the most common peppermint-flavored candies ~
  

Size: 7-3/4" x 4-3/4" approximately.