From hand-tinted lithographs in the early 1800s to modern photography, images of floral perfection have adorned the covers of flower seed packets for more than 100 years. This stamp art features 10 photographs of antique seed packet, cropped to highlight their beautiful floral detail.
Created using chromolithography – a process that replaced hand-tinted lithographs and allowed for inexpensive multi-color prints – the illustrations originally graced the fronts of flower seed packets printed between 1910 and 1920.
Each of the 10 stamps depicts blossoms of one variety of flower: a trio of cosmos in delicate white, pink, and red; stalks of yellow, pink and coral foxgloves; bright yellow primrose flowers with orange centers; a vibrant orange calendula; white, pink and blue aster blooms; one pale and one dark dianthus; linum blossoms in a rich red; white drifts of alyssum; clusters of phlox in red, pink and purple; and pale pink, subtle yellow, and muted orange-red zinnia flowers.