Antique French Framed Herbarium Specimen - Convolvulus (Morning Glory), Ornate Gilt Frame

Antique French framed herbarium specimen, or herbier: a pressed climbing bindweed hand-labelled in brown ink Convolvulus purpureus, of the Convolvulacees, mounted on blue-grey laid paper behind glass in an ornate gilt-gesso frame with scrolling foliate moulding. From a 19th- or early-20th-century French botanical study collection.

This is the showpiece of the series. The climbing habit of the bindweed gives the sheet real movement, and the scrolling gilt frame answers it, which is why this one carries a premium over its plainer-framed siblings. Hung alone above a small chest it does the work of a much larger picture.