Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.18001

    Fir tree specimen

    Date
    ca.1730
    Creator
    Jacob van Huysum (1682 - 1745, Dutch) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 375mm
    width (page): 268mm
    Subject
    Description
    Botanical study of a specimen of Abies, common name fir tree, referred to here as Abies taxi folio. Depicts a green-brown branch with long cones and green needle-like leaves, and another cone inset, lying on its side. Native to North and Central America, Europe, Asia and North Africa.

    Painting 53 from MS/109, a collection of botanical paintings by Jacob van Huysum and William Sartorius.

    Inscribed in ink 'Abies taxi folio, conis longissimis dependentibus'. Not signed.

    This painting is reproduced, in mirror image, in the Society of Gardeners' Catalogus Plantarum (1730) (plate 2, top figure, engraved by by Elisha Kirkall).

    Jacob van Huysum (1682-1745), Dutch botanical painter, was not a Fellow of the Royal Society. He produced most of the 50 illustrations for the Historia Plantarum Rariorum (London: 1728-38) written by John Martyn FRS, and all the drawings for Philip Miller’s Catalogus Plantarum, an index of trees, shrubs, plants and flowers.
    Object history
    Repeated in the British Museum collection, SL,5284.5. Slight variations to the Royal Society copy. Digital image available on online catalogue.
    Associated place
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