Beautiful collection of vintage prints. I like that there was context provided for the impact certain series of prints had historically. Ultimately, this is more of a coffee table book than a treatise on botanical art.

A beautiful, informative book filled to the brim with lovely color photos and illustrations of all kinds of mushrooms! Perfect for a mushroom-enthusiast or for someone looking to learn more about these precious fungi. Highly recommend everyone give it a read!

This book is beautifully illustrated. Most of the drawings were in color, but some were in black and white. I liked the ones in color most as mushrooms have lots of interesting colors.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a collection of very old public domain artwork of mushrooms. Some collections are in full color but many are not. Some are definitely more artistic and it is not terribly complete. There are some much nicer collections in the public domain out there IMHO, but some of these are lovely and it's certainly going to be a hit with any mushroom lovers.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

5 *stars*
What a beautiful book!!! Latvians during fall become crazy mushroom pickers, they will do everything to get home with a basket full of mushrooms. Mushroom sauce with freshly harvested potatoes is one of traditional Latvian foods. I myself am a passionate mushroom picker, so I really loved the illustrations. A lot of the pictures I recognized.

As I was watching the little pieces of mushroom art I was thinking of the artists who drew them. I imagine them walking through the forest with pencils and a notebook, sitting on the old stump and drawing them. Hearing all the forest sounds and just being there in the moment drawing them. Sounds so lovely.

Thanks for the book!
#MushroomBotanicalArt #NetGalley

Well this book delivers exactly what it promises. Mushrooms! I can't say I loved this book, but that is mostly because it isn't my style. I do love the history behind it, I just don't like mushrooms. I feel like this would be a fantastic gift for a chef /foodie in your life. I will totally buy it for my friend who loves to go mushroom harvesting

I’m a simple girl, I see a pretty cover with illustrated mushrooms and I have to get it.

Look at this cover, it’s so gorgeous and the inside it’s just the same, every single illustration was so well done, I’m in awe.

I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t know much about mushrooms outside of the very basic of how they grow and that the colorful ones are the most dangerous but I found this book so very interesting, I could sense the love and care that the authors of the illustrations put on this work, the fact that some of this pictures are dated centuries ago just make this book even more special.

I now just want to move to the countryside and go mushroom hunting.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange of an honest review

This is one of the most beautiful books i have ever seen in my life. Every page makes you want to take it and frame it on your wall.

I adore art (and i am an artist) and i was so so inspired by all of the beautiful works collected in this book and i can’t wait to refer back to it for years to come.

Mushroom Botanical Art is a collection of reproductions of historical botanical prints of mushrooms and other fungi. Originally published in Japanese in 2012, this English language edition is due out 2nd Nov 2021 from Media Do International. It's 208 pages and will be available in ebook format (earlier editions are available in other formats).

This book is full of antique reproduction hand tinted botanical prints with samples of many different species of fungi, showing them in different forms, life stages, and settings. The whole has a retro antique feel, and the page margin decorations, small chapter headings, and fonts used all enhance the overall antique feel.

The chapters are selected from different historical books of mycology from the 18th - 20th centuries and from several disparate geographical areas in Asia, Europe, and the New World. The pictures are drawn from 11 collections and the style of the artist/naturalists and original media varied widely. I was fascinated by how varied the representations of the same species, Amanita muscaria for example, could be whilst still being perfectly recognizable. The reproduction text is still in the original languages (German, Japanese, Italian, French, etc).

It's a fascinating book of history with beautiful illustrations. I would not recommend it as a field guide, but as an interesting book full of fungi, it's wonderful. This would make a nice selection for public library acquisition, for gardeners, gardening groups, smallholders, and lovers of botanical art.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Beautiful botanical book plates! The gorgeous illustrations in this tome take us back centuries. Back before we could snap photos on cameras, or use an identification app, how could we learn all the intricate identifiers of mushrooms? How could we learn to safely forage and use these little wonders for medicine and food? These highly detailed, highly scientific illustrations filled that need, and it's amazing to see how varied the styles could be, even for the same plant. Any fancier of fungi is sure to love this mycological volume!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

A compilation of mushroom beautiful, highly-detailed illustrations by 18th and 19th C artists, with short blurbs for context. While I wouldn't give this to someone as a general nonfiction recommendation, I would put it on display frequently and resist weeding it for as long as possible. This book is a treasure for the right audience.

Absolutely gorgeous! I'm such a mushroom fan and every page on this book is filled with beautiful images, and is a gold mine for information. Loved perusing through this!!

This book is absolutely GORGEOUS. I wish I could print out every page and have it as a poster in my room. This is the perfect book for Fall to get you in the spirit!

Chock-full of interesting and historical mushroom illustrations. A book like this is making headway at just the right time, because mushrooms and botanical drawings have never been trendier. I can see teenagers pasting pages from this book to their bedroom walls to suit their cottage-core aesthetic.

I really appreciate the multi-cultural aspect, it’s so interesting to see different art styles between countries.

I would have liked to see more information about mushroom identification and warnings about eating wild mushrooms.

I may not know much about mushrooms but I have always been fascinated with them. As a child we'd go foraging for them in local parks (in a big city).
We'd bring them home and my grandmother would pickle them. So my interest in them started at a young age and it continued into adulthood when I started photographing them as I came
across them in the woods.

This book is so beautifully illustrated and it's even more impressive when you realize these were created in Italy, Germany, France and Japan during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Filled with intricate details, and often rendered in delicate hues of greens and blues, this book would be a great buy for anyone into mycology but also a more casual fan of fungi or those that
appreciate botanical prints. I could also see this being used by artists as a reference guide or maybe for some tattoo inspiration?

I don't know how to review art, but here is me trying.

This book is a collection of, as the title suggests, mushroom botanical art. I found this very interesting and I loved the showcasing of different botanists and artists! I do wish there were some actual info about the mushrooms but again, this was really cool for what it is!

If you are a fan of art and/or fungi, check this one out!

4.5 ☆

As a graduated ecologist I really like reading about nature. Reading books about the wonderful kingdom of Fungus is another plus.

I really loved the illustrations and the book can serve as an introduction to the kingdom. So, it is highly accessible for everyone.

I would highly recommend it.

I asked myself, “Do I want to look at a book full of mushroom art?” And I said, “Yes, yes I do.” I’m happy I did, because this book was beautiful. It was a great collection of artwork from a bygone era that had to rely on these talented artists to record their scientific findings. I love botanical artwork and have no regrets reading this book. Looking at beautiful plant artwork is very relaxing.

A wonderful collections of prints of various species of mushrooms accompanied by their common name and scientific name. A quaint little book that would make a wonderful gift for a friend or family member who enjoys the outdoors / foraging.

I don't know what it is about mushrooms... they're just cute! I can't help but enthusiastically point at them when I discover a whole cluster during a walk in the woods. These illustrations have an almost meditative effect on me - they make for great art references, and I plan to use them for background inspiration for my next drawings.