+ FOCUS ON botanical prints
Beautiful antique framed pressed ferns adorn the wall in the dining room of Bridget Elworthy’s home. Rosanna Morris nds out more about these intriguing specimens…
In the middle of the 19th century, Britain was gripped by a craze. The nation had become infatuated with the natural world, thanks to naturalists such as Charles Darwin, and what started as an appreciation for botany turned into a mad obsession for one plant in particular: the fern. We became so fond of fronds that a name was coined for the mania – fern fever (or pteridomania – its o!cial name) engrossed the land. The fern motif was used proli "cally in decorative art, while anyone and everyone raced to collect and cultivate the plant.
Fashionable fern forays became popular social occasions. Enthusiasts armed with baskets and trowels headed into the countryside, scrambling through forests to uproot specimens in order to create indoor and outdoor ferneries at home, using greenhouses and terrariums. However, fern collecting soon led to widespread damage of their habitats and even threatened certain species.
Rather than digging up the whole plant, other collectors would amass fronds to dry and press in albums known as herbaria, an activity enjoyed by the novelist Charlo#e Brontë on her honeymoon in Ireland, and by American poet Emily Dickinson when she was a teenager. Ferns were also pressed and "xed to paper to be framed and hung as works of art, which are still as popular today. Now antiques, herbaria and framed ferns are highly coveted by botanical and decorative antiques lovers. But they are hard to come by.
Sigi Cassel of Julia Boston Antiques, which occasionally sells antique pressed ferns, explains that while true Victorian examples aren’t so available now, ‘ Victorian fern prints are relatively easy to pick up from antiques shops and print shops, as well as in online stores.’
Due to their scarcity, antique pressed ferns can command high prices, but several factors impact how much they are worth. ‘ Value can be judged in composition, condition and rarity of the ferns, as well as provenance and any other features which might distinguish them or add interest,’ Sigi adds. ‘ They are always popular if they are well laid out and framed well.’
People were not only out collecting fern cu#ings in Britain – professional
botanists and amateur fern collectors were seeking specimens in the Empire and America. ‘At the moment, we have a set collected in New Zealand,’ says Sigi. ‘ In the past, we’ve had a set collected by an army major in India, who had very delicately arranged them into unique pa!erns. It is always magical to come across a set that someone else – probably an amateur – has taken so much care over 150 years ago, and which still appeals today.’
While antique versions may be like gold dust, happily, a new generation of decorative artists are making modern herbaria. Artist-makers Mike Pollard and Rika Yamasaki of MR Studio London press and frame "owers and plants to make artworks. ‘ It feels really rewarding to turn something that would be mostly overlooked into something beautiful that can be kept and cherished,’ says Rika. Interior designer Hannah Brown frames preserved ferns, which are particularly striking. ‘ I think framed ferns look like museum pieces,’ she says. ‘ I love colour and I really enjoy # nding the right shade to use as a backdrop.’