The botanical and natural history antique prints that we discovered at the DC Big Flea market last weekend were mouth-wateringly exquisite. Finding two 19th-century illustrations of an octopus and a sea urchin made us so giddy with happiness that we wanted to throw all of our money at owner-dealer Ellen Afterman and skip off with new prints to frame. Want one for yourself? They may be coming to an antique show or flea market near you...
Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, Afterman combs Europe for her prints and then sells them online and brings them to antique shows and flea markets around the country. Some of her prints date back as early as the 18th century.
Many are the ways to obtain botanical and natural history prints: scour used bookstores for illustrated books, search Etsy.com, search online for dealers, etc. There's not quite anything like a real-deal antique print from Europe, though.
(Images: Lindsey Roberts)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Those shell prints are gor-ge-ous!
view JessicaO's profile
I cannot get enough of these, I use them daily in my work. I am always looking for more.
view shandell's's profile
Love these! As a cheap alternative, you can download similar (and free!) public domain images at Vintage Printable and print them yourself:
http://vintageprintable.com/wordpress/vintage-printable-animals-curiosity/
Some are quite big and would make really nice prints, and others are on the small side. You kind of have to search around and see what's there -- lots of great stuff though!
view thirtyeight20's profile