Help me identify an image, hive mind

May 31, 2022 3:43 PM

Can anyone identify this image? I have what I think is the original artwork, which I'm guessing was made into a print or a magazine image. Appears to involve the history of printing. I tried Google image search with no luck. Thanks!
posted by Joan Rivers of Babylon to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

Tin Eye doesn't recognize it either.

The maple leaves at top, and the thistle and rose, suggest a Canadian source. Not much help.
posted by zadcat at 4:24 PM on May 31, 2022 [1 favorite]

The maple leaves make me think Canada. Thistle (left and bottom?) makes me think Scotland, the rose (right) England...(dunno if they're included b/c of the Commonwealth connection or some more direct meaning, like for some bilateral/international project or a Scottish-Canadian printmaking org)

There seems to be some text or signature to the right of the thistle emblem at bottom. Can you get a clearer view of it?
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 4:32 PM on May 31, 2022

To add: the big thistle(?) at bottom is yellow as opposed to the pinkish/purple that I usually see for Scottish ones. Not sure what or who uses yellow thistles as an emblem...or is it that the color started pink/purple and faded to yellow??
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 4:36 PM on May 31, 2022

From a quick search, there appears to be a Canadian company called Thistle Printing, est. 1931. Perhaps a promotional or commemorative print by them? (But could be way off-track...)
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 4:57 PM on May 31, 2022

The art paper company Strathmore has used a thistle as an emblem for over 100 years. It seems like the actual design of the thistle changes frequently to keep up with the latest styles. I can't find a version that closely matches the thistle in your picture, but it is a possibility.
posted by Tsuga at 6:49 PM on May 31, 2022 [1 favorite]

(No idea where it's from but it's so great! How big is the original? Do you have it on display?)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:59 PM on May 31, 2022

I feel like I've seen it in the flickr feed of Letterpress Depot, keepers of many old printing materials:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/53177163@N00/
posted by nickggully at 7:30 PM on May 31, 2022

edit: ignore above, I couldn't find it.
posted by nickggully at 7:42 PM on May 31, 2022

It looks like something that would have been used in the endpapers of a history book pitched to the middle class circa 1940–50. Something like this book (though the endpapers shown there are different from the print you're interested in.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:39 AM on June 1, 2022

The style reminds me of Arthur Rackham, who died in 1939.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 5:00 AM on June 1, 2022

Came back to see no answers. You might send this to the Toronto Public Library and see if anyone there recognizes it as the endpaper of a book or book series.
posted by zadcat at 1:57 PM on June 1, 2022