Botanical print by William Bradbury and William Mullett Williams. 1854. One of 21 'Nature Prints'.

The South Kensington Museum register refers to this acquisition (14765) as "A few leaves from the newly invented process of Nature printing by Bradbury and Evans. 1854. Price 21 Shillings". The same source lists the process as 'Phytoglyphy' - from two Greek words for 'nature' and 'carving'. In this process two sheets of metal of unequal hardness are used to 'sandwich' the object to be nature printed - here the leaf, which leaves its impression in the softer plate. The Bradbury and Evans technique was in fact the subject of litigation between the British company and the Imperial Printing Works, Vienna, which claimed prior invention. William Bradbury's son Henry had been sent to see the process in Vienna and was accused of industrial espionage by Alois Auer the Viennese director. Auer published a broadside condemning Bradbury entitled (in abbreviation): 'Conduct of a Young Englishman named Henry Bradbury [...] after his return to his Native Country, in opposition to the Acknowledgments of Foreign Countries concerning the natural-printing process [..] the Conduct of Bradbury ascertained by the members of the Imperial Printing Office'.

14765:18