NOW IN STOCK: An Illustrated Catalog of American Fruits & Nuts: The US Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection.
The United States Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection encompasses over 7,500 botanical watercolour paintings of evolving fruit and nut varieties, alongside specimens introduced by USDA plant explorers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Assembled between 1886 and 1942, the collection’s remarkable, botanically accurate watercolours were executed by some 21 professional artists. Authored largely before the widespread application of photography, the watercolours were intended to aid accurate identification and examination of fruit varietals, for the nation’s fruit growers. Documenting the transformation of American pomology, the science of fruit breeding and production, and the horticultural innovations accountable for contemporary fruit cultivation and consumption, the USDA’s collection offers fascinating anthropological and horticultural insights concerning the fruits we ecstatically devour, and why.
An Illustrated Catalog of American Fruits & Nuts, Atelier Éditions’ colourful examination of the USDA’s pomological collection contains a delicious cornucopia of illustrations gathered from the collection. Encompassing fruit-suffused anecdotes and observations drawn from the fields of archaeology and anthropology, horticulture and literature, ancient representation and contemporary visual art, offers readers an engaging, biophilic meditation upon the sweetest of all earth’s produce.
An Illustrated Catalog of American Fruits & Nuts features an introduction by Adam Leith Gollner, author of The Fruit Hunters, accompanied by texts from several fruit enthusiasts, including Jacqueline Landey, John McPhee, Michael Pollan, and Marina Vitaglione.
384 pp, hardcover with over 300 colour illustrations
Published by Atelier Éditions, 2021
29 x 21 cm
English
