CRAIG, ERIC
NEW ZEALAND FERNS
£1,750
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography
Auction: 9 October 2019 at 12:00 BST
Description
[Auckland, c.1880] folio album, 445 x 335mm, containing 70 leaves with over 150 pressed fern specimens, most with an accompanying letterpress label with the Linnean binomials, title-page with two photographs showing a Maori people in traditional dress, additional fern specimens and a print entitled Scene in Tikitapu Bush near Ohinemutu, quarter calf with original carved wooden boards, Eric Craig's stamp, Princes Street, Auckland, to the reverse of some leaves
Footnote
Note: Eric Craig (1829-1923) emigrated from Ecclefechan, Scotland to Australia and latterly onto New Zealand in the second half of the nineteenth century. In Auckland, Craig set up his business in the city's princes Street: The Fern and Curiosity Dealer. Craig produced several fern albums such as this for sale in his shop, alongside Maori art and artefacts. The fern albums fed into Victorian pteridomania, or the 'fern craze', and were eagerly collected. Much of Craig's collection is now housed at the Auckland Museum.