Introduction to a catalogue of the early Italian prints in the British museum
An 1886 introduction by Richard Fisher to the British Museum's catalogue of early Italian prints, published in London by the Chiswick Press for scholars and collectors of old engraving. Its four small pictures are single-line botanical sketches of flowers and leaves, drawn with clean outlines on open cream paper, showing how a few confident strokes can suggest a plant; a designer might borrow their economical line work and generous white space for botanical or herbal motifs.
