Seed Bags and Supplies.

1900. STECHER. Seed Bags and Supplies. 2 pp., index and 35 chromolithographic plates. Folio, bound in original illustrated wrappers (a small piece missing from the cover), preserved in a half green morocco box. Rochester, N.Y.: Stecher Litho Co., n.d. (#142669) A marvelous example of the work done by Stecher for various nurseries in the nineteenth century. This particular format is unusual because each sheet is comprised of 9 illustrated samples of fruit and vegetables, as opposed to the single sample per page that is normally found. The German-born Frank A. Stecher (1849-1916), first set up business in Rochester in 1871, and by 1886, "Stecher was a leader in the chromolithographic industry in Rochester. An 1888 guide to the industries of Rochester noted that the firm [Stecher Lithographic Company] employed 100 people and had machinery valued at $125,000" (Kabelac). No copies found in OCLC. Kabelac, "Nineteenth-Century Rochester Fruit and Flower Plates" in University of Rochester Library Bulletin, (1982), Vol. XXXV, pp. 93-114. See Raphael, An Oak Spring Pomona Nos 63 to 66.