Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.18003

    Spruce fir tree specimen

    Date
    ca.1735
    Creator
    Jacob van Huysum (1682 - 1745, Dutch) , Painter
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 373mm
    width (page): 266mm
    Subject
    Description
    Botanical study of a specimen of Picea abies, common name spruce fir tree. Depicts a branch with brown bark, green needle-like leaves and developing pinec cones at the ends of branches.

    Plate 55 from MS/109, a collection of botanical paintings by Jacob van Huysum and William Sartorius.

    Inscribed in ink 'Abies piceae foliis brevibus conis parvis biuncialibus laxis.' Not signed.

    According to Philip Miller's The Gardener's Dictionary (1735), specimens of this tree were first brought from America and planted in Devonshire and Cornwall.

    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.

    Philip Miller (1691 - 1771) English botanist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1730.
    Object history
    Repeated in the British Museum collection, SL,5284.63. Slight variations to the Royal Society copy. Digital image available on online catalogue.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
    Powered by CollectionsIndex+/CollectionsOnline