Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.9237
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    ‘Sedum montanum...’

    Date
    1753
    Creator
    Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708 - 1770, German) , Botanist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 258mm
    width (painting): 178mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Botany
    Content object
    nature
       > plant
    Description
    Botanical study, Sedum montanum [Sempervivum arachnoideum] in flower with foreground detail. Commonly called the mountain woolly houseleek or cobweb houseleek [described in Philip Millers, Gardeners’ dictionary, 1735], the artist shows the fine inter-leaf filaments producing the cobweb effect, from which the plant takes its name.

    Inscribed in ink: “SEDUM montanum tomento sum C.B.P. Cobweb Houseleek.” Signed lower right; “G.D.Ehret pinxit”. Inscibed verso, lower right, “1753”. Pencil inscription verso: “2778/4”.

    From the watercolour collection of Gordon Elliott Fogg, MS/911.

    Originally framed, the backing board has an inscription in ink providing provenance details: “By Ehret. Marq. of Bute’s Colln. Bo’t at the Bale’s Sale I.vii.’81 (lot 270), D.O.” The effects of the British collector Charles Sackville Bale (1791-1881) were sold at Christie’s, 13 May-1 July 1881.
    Object history
    This item was one of eleven botanical works by Fellows of the Royal Society bequeathed to the Royal Society by Professor G.E. (Tony) Fogg FRS, and received June 2005.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Germany
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