Flower Tokens
Frances Flora Bond Palmer American, born England
Lithographer Francis & Seymour Palmer American
Printer J. C. Riker American
Not on view
This album contains six hand-colored lithographs that depict women embodying flowers. Drawn by Frances Palmer, they were printed by F. & S. Palmer, the company the artist ran with her husband. They were located at 34 Ann Street from 1846-9. The blank pages in the album were intended to be used by the owner. Here, 43 pages of poems were added by Maria B. Cooper of Newark, New Jersey. Original red binding, blind stamped and gilded.
Title page: Violet–Modesty (flower figures kneel below leaves and hold silver urns).
Second image: Forget Me Not (a flower figure on a river bank waves farewell to a departing steamboat).
Third image: Snow Drop–Youthful Hope (flower figures in a snowy landscape).
Fourth image: Flax Industry (flower figure holding a spindle).
Fifth image: Orange Flower–Purity (flower-figure bride in a chapel formed of rustic fences and trees).
Sixth image: Convolutus–Repose (a dance troupe of flower figures with a moth).
Palmer's images are based on prints by the French artist J. J. Grandville in "Les Fleurs Animées" (Paris, 1847), of which there was also a New York edition. Grandville titles that relate to Palmer's are Violet (vol. I, p. 127), Myosotis (vol. II, p. 90), Primever, Perce-Neige (vol. I, p. 337), Lin (vol. I, p. 279); Fleur d'Orange (vol. I, p. 309); and Belle de Nuit (vol. I, p. 201) [page numbers from 1867 Paris edition, MMA 1970.565.423.1–.2].
