Peach Tree Salesman's Sample Book
M. Brunswick & Co., Rochester Lithographing and Printing Co. and Vredenburg & Co.
Rochester, New York: Mid 19th Century
12 chromolithographs on paper,
bound into accordion fold book
Print size: 9 1/4 x 6 inches each
Book size: 18 1/2 x 38 1/4 inches unfolded,
9 1/4 x 6 1/2 x 3/4 inch folded
Faint pencil inscription on cover: "Apples, Quinces, Peaches"
$800
Folding Peach Tree Book
Chromolithographs, Mid 19th Century
Chromolithographs, Mid 19th Century
This sample book would have been used by a traveling tree salesman employed by nurseries to sell peach trees to farmers. It consists of 12 colorful prints of larger-than-life size peaches in vivid colors, with their names and brief advertising copy, mostly straightforward descriptions such as: "A new peach from Spalding County, Georgia. A very showy fruit. Fine flavor and juicy, melting and good. Ripe about the first of July." , One print of three varieties departs from this format to add a touch of humor: "A New York policeman is styled, 'One of the Finest.' Here you have 'Three of the Finest,' and a New York policeman isn't in it with them for a moment." A few in this set have handwritten notations as to their ripening date, e.g. "Last Sept." They are bound into an accordion-fold book with light brown cloth covers that open to display all 12. Peaches in this set are: Triumph, Mountain Rose, Elberta, New Prolific, Waddell, Crawford's Folly, Stump the World, Champion, Chair's Choice, Foster, Greenboro, Fitzgerald, Crawford's Late and Mayflower.
The twelve in this particular book were printed by one of two Rochester, New York, companies. From the 1850s, Rochester became a center for nursery gardening and a flourishing printing and illustration industry grew up to provide pictures of the flowers, trees and bushes for use as catalogues by nursery salesmen. They greatly resemble the folk art of their time, and were in fact produced via a process also used by folk and amateur artists--stencils were used by the illustrators to produce the basic shapes, with details added freehand.
In addition to being charming and decorative slices of Americana, catalogues such as these document agricultural history and the existence of varieties of fruits that are still familiar favorites as well as those that are no longer commonly grown, if not extinct.
Condition: Generally good, colors bright. Covers worn, stained and chipped from use. Prints have usual expected wear, minor abrasions and toning.
References:
Kabelac, Karl Sanford. Nineteenth-Century Rochester Fruit and Flower Plates in The University of Rochester Library Bulletin. (vol.XXXV,1982), pp.93-114.
Raphael, Sandra. An Oak Spring Pomona. Upperville, Virginia: Oak Spring Garden Library, 1990. p. 65.
Reese, William S. Stamped with a National Character: Nineteenth Century American Color Plate Books. p. 72.