De Bry, Johann Theodor (1561-1623) after Jacob KEMPENER (fl. 1600). A suite of emblematic florilegium engravings, featuring bouquets in ornate vases, surrounded by insects, and one snail, with engraved mottos on scrolls beneath. [Cologne: engraved and published by Johann Bussemecher after Theodor de Bry, two plates dated 1604.]

An extremely rare complete suite of these attractive and beautifully engraved emblematic images of bouquets in striking baroque vases, with mottoes. These images were originally commissioned and engraved by Theodor de Bry after a series of paintings by the floral artist Jacob Kempener. The series was published in Frankfurt c.1600, with the first engraving titled Polyptoton de Flores (The Variations of Flowers). The present set was re-engraved in reverse (excepting the inscriptions) in Cologne by Johann Bussemecher. The verse mottos run through the declensions of the Latin word for flower, Flos, and seem to comment on the arrangements depicted—tender buds for tender youth, wilting blooms for age, etc. New Hollstein, IV 43; De Jong and De Groot, Ornamentprenten in het Rijksprentenkabinet I (1988), n 355.

Set of six engraved plates numbered I–III [–IV–VI] (plate size 288 x 255mm). Each matted separately (trimmed close to the platemark with some neat restorations to the margins).