Henry Bradury's first efforts in nature printing were issued in 1854 as a volume of 21 plates entitled 'A few leaves represented by 'nature printing' showing the application of the art for the reproduction of botanical and other natural objects with a delicacy of detail and truthfulness unobtainable by any other known method of printing...'. The 'book' had no text and seems to have been intended as an advertisement for the potential applications of nature printing. It was quickly followed by Moore's 'Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland' (1855), and Johnstone and Croall's 'Nature-Printed British Sea-weeds (1859).

Although modelled on the actual plant, nature prints lack the illusion of three dimensions conveyed by a conventional illustration, and in fact resemble flattened herbarium specimens. The image was printed in three colours applied à la poupée (on the same plate and printed together); the colours blend where they meet rather than overlap.
Henry Bradbury (1829-1860) issued his first efforts in nature printing in 1854 as a volume 'showing the application of the art for the reproduction of botanical and other natural objects with a delicacy of detail and truthfulness unobtainable by any other known method of printing...' He had studied under Alois Auer (1913-1869) at the Imperial Printing Office in Vienna and seen the new technique there.