Featuring a detailed design matrix for furniture in the late Victorian Aesthetic style. Carved from a heavy, thick slab of dense limestone. Circa 1890.

Solnhofen limestone: An extremely fine-grained limestone, originally sourced from Bavaria, and used in the traditional stone lithography printing process, which relies on the chemical mutual repulsion of oil and water, the illustration being drawn in reverse onto the stone.

Invented by Alois Senefelder in 1796, lithography became the dominant industrial method for mass-producing complex commercial illustrations. Slabs like this were widely utilized by printing houses until modern offset metal plate technology replaced them in the 20th century.

32.5cm x 27cm x 5cm

Ref: 26796