Folio, 52 by 36 cm. First gathering -- a folded card sheet -- with title page and two page "Vorwort", or forward, followed by 30 color plates. Plates can have numerous separate illustrations, sometimes with one or two of those illustrations dominating the plate. Always the disparate pieces are arranged artfully. So much of Art Nouveau decoration arose from botanical ornament, with varying degrees of literalness and stylization or abstraction. This collection is a sort of visual glossary of this core area of Art Nouveau decoration. A visual dictionary, if you will, from which a designer in any of the decorative arts could draw or adapt. But this is more than a reference work -- the plates are themselves works of printed art, and many of these plates have surely found themselves framed and hung proudly on someone's walls. Portfolio edges with considerable tearing and fraying of cloth. Also on the surface of the cloth there is a considerable amount of schmutz, including colored pencil markings and an ink stamp, and spots of blistering. The dusty soiling that is, or was, evenly spread, is erasable with effort -- we tested this in several areas but chose not to do it everywhere -- while some stains that aren't merely the accumulation of dust over the years are more stubborn and we assume permanent barring extraordinary measures. Likewise, the ink stamp and some of the other writing we've lightened but should be assumed are not fully removable. The plates within are generally clean in terms of their pictorial images but do have some age toning and light soil in the margins that aren't reversible. The card stock has some brittleness which has led to some occasional minor chipping and other edgewear. There is an inked stamp on the back of all the plates which we think will not bother most. A larger such stamp on the title page we have mostly been able to remove but we think there is still some trace of it. Title: Von der Pflanze zum Ornament Author Name: Kolb, Gustav and Karl Gmelich Edition: First Illustrator: Gustav Kolb and Karl Gmelich Location Published: G?ppingen, Jllig & M?ller: 1902 Binding: Cloth Portfolio Item lbs: 2.00 Item lbs Categories: Color Plate Books, Ornament, Art Nouveau, Botanical Seller ID: 19985
