Fern albums and related material

The Victorian fern craze of the 19th century reached its peak in Britain in the 1850s, spreading to the colonies, and finally reaching the antipodes around 1870. This widespread fascination with ferns has been described as pteridomania, and it had all the hallmarks of an eccentric fashion frenzy. Nevertheless, good science flowed from it--botanists were stimulated to study the morphology, anatomy, reproductive structure and ultimately the classification of these cryptic plants. The demand from fern-lovers for ever more exotic species led to a period of heightened exploration and discovery. In New Zealand the number of described fern species doubled in the latter half of the 19th century, and, everywhere the fashion took hold, knowledge of fern distribution was greatly enhanced. A flood of new species back to Europe fuelled the growth of public ferneries, boosted the horticultural trade, and spawned a plethora of books on the identification and cultivation of ferns. ... Until recently, knowledge of fern albums has been limited to regional accounts. Now, however, Michael Hayward and Martin Rickard have drawn on their own personal collections and extensive networks of contacts with private and institutional collections to produce the first comprehensive account of fern albums world-wide. They have amassed a huge amount of historical information about private and commercial producers in countries from Britain to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawai'i, Jamaica and India, as well as some in Europe, North America and the Far East, who are much less well known. The products and styles of the different dealers are lavishly illustrated, and clues to the makers of anonymous albums provided. Finally, for those wanting to build personal collections of these cultural artefacts, there is a section on care and repair. --Foreword.