• Home
  • About
  • Leslie Hendrix Wood Interiors
  • Press
  • Privacy Policy
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter

Hadley Court - Interior Design Blog

Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.

  • Decorating
  • Organizing
  • Entertaining
  • Traveling
  • Portfolio
  • Shop

The 4 Step Guide to Easter Entertaining and Egg Decorating

How To Make A Flowering Easter Cross

Easter Home Decor Ideas

Decorating Design Tips

The Art of French Matting With Antique Botanical Prints

Share16
Pin6K
Tweet
6K Shares

Photo of French matting on antique botanical prints found at the enchanted home shop The art of French matting with antique botanical prints. Basilius Besler.  Florilegiums. Historical books on flowers. What do these things – and people – have in common, dear readers?

Come with us today on a beautiful learning journey to find out.

THE HISTORY OF FRENCH MATTING

Thin, delicately drawn lines of varying widths and thicknesses, hand marbleized French and Italian papers, gold leaf, whisper soft watercolors, these are all hallmarks of the traditional art of French matting.

This ancient technique began long before the advent of window mats and picture framing. Many early European artists worked on paper and mounted their works onto larger sheets, which were then bound into books or folios.

They then created borders of lines and panels around their images with iron gall and carbon black inks to draw the eye inward, repeating the colors and contrasts in the image.

As picture framing materials and techniques developed in the 19th century, the window mat, made of many layers of paper, was created to separate the art from coming into contact with the glazing { glass } above it in the frame.

The tradition of applying decorative lines and panels continued and came to be known as french matting.

As you can see from the antique botanical prints below, french matting has been used to highlight the exquisite colors in these highly collectible hand tinted antique prints by Basilius Besler.

French matts on antique botanicals by Basilius Besler photo
BASILIUS BESLER
Photo of An engraving of botanist Basilius Besler, author of the most famous book in the world on antique botanical prints
Basilius Besler [1561-1629] compiled and published the world’s first and still most famous book on flowers, the Hortus Eystettensis. Published in 1612, this book was a codex, or a florilegeum { ” a gathering of flowers” } of all the flowers in one man’s garden over the course of one year.  It changed the history of botanical literature as it was the first book that displayed flowering plants as objects of beauty.

Photo of Hortus Eystettensis by Basilius Besler, the world's most famous book of antique botanical prints Mr. Besler was responsible for engaging all of the artists, engravers, colourists and printers whose work is so beautifully displayed in this extremely rare book, of which only 14 complete copies are extant.

Click on the image below to be taken to the wonderful video, prepared by Christie’s,  to virtually experience turning the pages of this rare book yourself.

A video of the Hortus Eystettensis, the most famous book of botanicals prints in existence.
Today, original prints from Hortus Eystettensis [sometimes known as Besler’s Botanicals] are highly prized by collectors, and you can find many of them, already framed with french matting, or unframed, at George Glazer in New York City.
Photo of Basilius Besler antique botanicals print with french matting and burlwood framing at George Glazer, NYCOf course, beautiful botanical prints with french matting can be found in many other places as well, both antique and reproduction, and they are beloved by interior designers as they add a touch of elegance and color to any interior.

One of our personal favorite uses of french matting on an antique botanicals print is in this pretty blush pink and taupe guest bedroom by interior designer Jessica Bradley.
french matting on botanical prints by interior designer jessica bradley photoAs you can see from the vignette below, created by Liz Williams Interiors, french matted botanical art can be used to create a calm but noticeable focal point in any room of your home.

Modern day french matting artists can be found via luxury framing shops and will, working in collaboration with your local interior designer, help you select exactly the right colors and proportions to enhance the delicacy and beauty of your antique and reproduction botanical art prints.
Botanical art framed with french matting by Liz Williams Interiors PhotoOne last thing… if you can, buy the best. Buy a Besler.
They are still reasonable, and they are extremely rare.

~~~

Photo of Antique Basilius Besler botanical print in french mattingLeslie Carothers

for

Leslie Hendrix Wood

Leslie Hendrix Wood Interiors
Interior Designer
Midland, Texas
Screen Shot 2015-12-02 at 9.10.32 AMOwner, the Hadley Court blog

~~~

~ We invite you to please click the links below to follow Hadley Court on our other social channels ~

Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Instagram

Share16
Pin6K
Tweet
6K Shares


« Honored! The American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge Holiday Bash
Our Must Have Holiday Book: Interior Design Master Class »

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Leslie Wood, Interior Design Blogger

Hadley Court

Interior Design Blog

MarthaStewart.com Contributor

AS SEEN IN

As Seen In AD - WSJ - HGTV - HouseBeautiful - The Editor AT Large - Zillow - DHome

Hadley Court - Interior Design and Lifestyle Blog

Hadley Court is my family’s summer home where I spent my summers as a child. Every day at Hadley Court was a celebration of fine living.
Read More

Archives

Categories

Search

Copyright © 2022 · Hadley Court · Logo Design by Gadabout · Blog Design & Hosting by Servously

Copyright © 2022