[ Photographs ] Cunningham, Imogen Orchid Cactus. Chloride paper print, 11.75 x 9 inches, with the photographer's signature, in pencil on recto. 1930-35 E40000-60000 An Unpublished and Apparently Unique Print From The Estate Of Else Marie Anthon

[ Photographs ] Cunningham, Imogen Orchid Cactus. Chloride paper print, 11.75 x 9 inches, with the photographer's signature, in pencil on recto. 1930-35 E40000-60000 An Unpublished and Apparently Unique Print From The Estate Of Else Marie Anthon Frye, who graduated from Seattle High School with Cunningham, in 1903, and maintained a lifelong friendship with her through the 1960s. Both women shared an abiding passion for gardening. Frye herself was a noted gardener who wrote articles for several horticultural publications. Her husband was head of the University of Washington botany department, in which capacity he gave the young photographer her first Job, making lantern slides of botanical specimens. Later on, Cunningham's love of plants and flowers would be explored artistically in the variety of plants and flowers she photographed from 1925-35 She wrote, "I have always been interested in plants but never never studied them until we came to California, where everything grew so marvelously. " Pictured in this warm-toned print are the flowers of the "epiphyllum," popularly known as the "Orchid Cacti." Ephiphyllums are tropical jungle cacti, not desert cacti, and often grow on tree branches as ephipytes, like some orchids. The stamens create a dramatic starburst effect and the magnificent bell-shaped blossoms range from six to ten inches across making them similar in size to a magnolia flower - perhaps Cunningham best- known floral study. The white-flowered ephipyllum is nightblooming, which may account for the lyrical moodiness of this print, and is extremely fragrant. Highly regarded such flowers may take awhile to bloom, but once they do the gardener is rewarded with brilliantly colored petals that are also longlasting. Accompanying the lot are photostatic copies of letters between Frye and Cunningham, which give a fascinating glimpse into the personalities of each woman.