Tony Meintjes On Botanical Prints

WORDS Ashraf Booley ADDITIONAL SOURCES publicdomainreview.org; telegraph.co.uk

Photographer and printer Tony Meintjes chats to us about his interest in botanical prints.

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Robert Thornton published an ambitious work that paid homage to Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus. For Part III, “The Temple of Flora”, coloured plates were engraved by various artists to capture exotic flowers against dramatic backdrops. It would turn out to be an enduring treasure of botanical illustrations.

Tony Meintjes, founder of the digital printing bureau Southern Editions, plans to re-produce the prints from “The Temple of Flora”.

Why the interest in botanical prints?

I like prints made before the 20th century. Although not guaranteed, they usually provide qualities and textures that are the by-product of the printing techniques of that time.

Which of the illustrations in “The Temple of Flora” is your favourite?

I like the strelitzia. I love the way the flowers are framed by the leaves, which stand proud of the landscape that looks like it’s straight from the Triassic Period.

What do you appreciate about these plates?

Since photography had not yet become the dominant mode of documentation, there was not only the issue of translating a three-dimensional object into a pleasing illustration, but, to make multiple copies, the original also had to pass through another set of lenses in the form of the engraver. This process was brought to bear on the final print, infusing it with a signature of the time. I really like that historical place in the world of printing.

What plans do you have in the pipeline?

My wife Flora (I kid you not) and I are growing our collection of works from this period and hope to have a formidable resource of illustrations on high-quality cotton papers using non-fugitive inks. We are busy renovating a lovely old building in McGregor, where we have a restaurant and gallery, Flora’s, with a variety of prints for sale.