Tag Archive: 0nature

We have come across some unique things here at Simon Beattie Ltd, but this one is new to us: lepidochromy, i.e., printing with butterflies. Yes, you read that correctly: there is a printing process wherein actual butterflies are ‘printed’. It is a type of transfer illustration, and not dissimilar to other types of ‘nature printing’ […]

I’ve seen lots of silhouettes before, but never anything quite like this: a wonderful combination of hand-crafted image and handwritten verse produced in Germany c.1860, with 12 exquisitely-executed full-page silhouette illustrations cut from black varnished paper and mounted on pressed oak and chestnut leaves. The book is a poem entitled Die Blätter erzählen (‘The leaves are telling’), written […]