Cultivated Medlar (Mespilus germanica)

The brown and blue-green inks were printed <em>à la poupée. </em>Instead of making a plate for each color, a single plate is selectively inked in different colors using stumps of rags, known as dolls (<em>poupée </em>in French), so that the complete design is printed at one time<em>.</em> Since this process is laborious, the plate was most often colored by hand with watercolor, like the right-hand impression. The printed color, however, creates a more beautiful effect, because all of the subtleties of the shading are evident. In comparison, the watercolor camouflages some of the finest detail.