Finding fabulous non-Japanese items, particularly French ones, seems to be a recent theme with me. So imagine my surprise when I stumbled across these amazing herbiers (pressed and labeled botanicals) recently at a tiny Japanese antique store miles and miles away from Tokyo. Used as scientific tools in many countries for hundreds of years, they are quintessentially French to my mind, although I have also seen many Scandinavian examples. So my surprise continued when I looked closely and discovered that these are actually Japanese, from 1939!
I only bought 12 of them, thinking it a good number that works either 3×4 or 4×3…
…or even 2 rows of 6, either horizontal or vertical.
I picked out some of my favorites from the three binders, but I am thinking that perhaps I need to go back and buy them all. They can look amazing in a huge massed display.
Note how different they look with dark frames against colored walls.
Some, like the oxalis, I can identify by sight, while others will need translation. The paper is lightly foxed, but I think the patina only adds to their charm. I can’t resist showing them each in close-up – how many can you identify?
Many views of pressed botanicals can be found in the homes of great bloggers, from Brooke…
…to Joan.
Hugely trendy in decor right now, I already had a Pinterest page devoted to them with some of my favorite images and different ways to frame them.
Take a look here for more images and the photo credits. I’ll let you know if I go back and get them all!
Related Posts:
Tussle at the Antique Jamboree…or the Never Wait Rule
I’ll go back with you!
Well done Jacqueline! I love the Scandinavian ones I found here in Antwerp earlier this year, they are framed and ready to hang on our upstairs corridor whenever that has its turn for redecoration! I too bought 12 but the dealer had so many more and I was tempted to go back to buy more, at 10 euros a piece, they weren’t a bad price, however, the framing made them sooo expensive, but I do love them. I have a pinterest page with some interesting ones on too. By the way, where did you find yours, was it in Nish Ogikubo maybe? Hope you are all good, we have bucket loads of snow today and it took me an age to drive my daughter to school, pity it wasn’t a no school day, they don’t do that here, could easily have crawled back under the duvet!
Happy Hanukkah Jacqueline!
Ooh, totally envious of your find. You should definitely go back and get the rest soon, otherwise bound to regret it:)! Now that I live in the countryside I’ve started making my own. Most of the plants in your photos I have seen growing around where I live in Yamanashi. Last summer I just used books but I by next summer I hope to have made a proper press.
A Bit of Cosmic Luck…Shrine Sale Synchronicity | Tokyo Jinja
[…] bedding. The contemporary bed in indigo plays off the other vintage pieces from the trunk to the herbiers. All things close to my heart as you well […]