Ferns and Flowers

Long name for a long book, Mrs. Hale’s Receipts for the Million Containing Four Thousand Five Hundred and Forty-five Receipts, Facts, Directions, etc. in the Useful, Ornamental, and Domestic Arts. I was hopeful there would be all sorts of wonderful illustrations to share with you. There were two. But, I do think they are quite nice. They’re large and being just simple line drawings allow you to use them as is or fill them up with the colors of your choice.

The book did not identify an illustrator and was published in 1857. I wasn’t entirely sure where to put this public domain image with ferns and flowers. Is it a floral image, a bouquet, a flower border or a leafy border. I opted for leafy border since there are more leaves than flowers and there’s fewer leafy borders on Reusable Art right now.

flowers-ferns

The drawing was originally displayed upright and offered as an embroidery design. I bet it would be really pretty done up in thread. I’ve put it on its side to fit better on the screen. There’s one large flower at the top of the drawing with ferns, leaves, and berries below.

This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.