I have a fantasy that one day at a flea market I'll uncover a beautiful antique herbarium that's been sitting in the bottom of a box for 150 years or so filled with page upon page of perfectly documented pressed and dried plant specimens. Alas, this has yet to happen, but I did recently find this and one other (listed separately) herbarium pages, I'd guess removed from a larger volume. This one is Tiarella Cordifolio (or foamflower), a flowering perennial with erect stems of foamy cream flowers in summer. I love how wispy and delicate it looks here, with distinct tiers of flowers, leaves and roots, all the better for being surrounded by the vast expanse of the large page. And it endured remarkably well; really a lovely thing. The paper, too, is in excellent shape, with just a very little bit of age toning around the edges, which makes it feel all the more romantic.
It has been backed with a bright white heavy weight sheet of rag paper just to protect it and which is easily removed. It alone measures 16" x 11 1/8". Shipped flat packed in glassine between sheets of cardboard.
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