This book is fun ! You can open anywhere and immediately dive into a story told in both prose and images . It ’ s also huge , a hefty tome worthy of any coffee table . At first glance it might seem like a lot of lovely fluff . But read on ! The book is an excellent and easy-to-digest history , as well as art exhibit .
A stained glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany of wisteria looking out on Long Island ’ s Oyster Bay is contrasted on the opposite page with a 17th-century Japanese teapot with overglazed enamel , also depicting wisteria . A 19th-century , hand-colored lithograph of a bouquet of peonies is matched with a 2011 watercolor of peonies designed to look like an herbarium specimen .
The subjects come from around the world and reflect developing traditions . A 1973 painting using gouache on paper is an example by a member of the Kwoma people of Papua New
Guinea , adapting their ancient practice of decorating the ceilings of ceremonial buildings with bark painting . This is complemented on the opposite page by the image of a bag made with glass beadwork from the last half of the 19th century . Equally colorful as the Kwoma piece , it was created by an anonymous member of the Nēhiyawak peoples of eastern Canada . The use of glass beads reflects incorporation into the native art form a new material after contact with European traders . Both works show stylistic interpretations of flowers with significant symbolic meaning to their cultures .
The book is nicely supplemented by appendices that include a timeline of flowers in human history , information on the symbolism of flowers , and short biographies of key artists represented . It takes time to fully appreciate the book , but it is time well spent .
GLASS FLOWERS Flowers made of glass is another unusual expression of floral art , but the more than 4300 models in the collection at Harvard University were not intended as art objects . Instead , these were teaching tools showing a selection of primarily North American native plants and frequently grown exotics for botany students in the late 1800s and early 1900s . Created by the Czech father-and-son team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka , this collection was revived by a major conservation effort and enhancement of the exhibit space over the last ten years .
Celebrating that effort is a new book : “ Glass Flowers : Marvels of Art and Science at Harvard .” There are several authors , but the stars of this book are the amazingly close-up and finely focused photographs by Natalja Kent . Earlier books on this collection have been produced , but none capture the beauty of the restored collection like this new publication . m
Brian R . Thompson is the manager and curator of the Elisabeth C . Miller Library of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens . He is also a member of the “ Bulletin ” Editorial Board .
Bibliography
Brown , Jennifer , Scott E . Fulton , Donald H . Pfister , and photography by Natalja Kent . “ Glass Flowers : Marvels of Art and Science at Harvard .” New York , NY : Scala Arts Publishers , Inc , 2020 . ISBN : 9781785512247 , $ 24.95 .
Clarke , Victoria , commission editor . “ Flower : Exploring the World in Bloom .” London ; New York : Phaidon Press Limited , 2020 . ISBN : 9781838660857 , $ 59.95 .
Ikin , Ed . “ Rare Plants : The Story of 40 of the World ’ s Most Unusual and Endangered Plants .” London : Welbeck , in association with Royal Botanic Gardens , Kew , 2020 . ISBN : 9780233006239 , $ 50.00 . Co-winner , CBHL Annual Literature Award , 2021 .
Jewell , Jennifer . “ The Earth in Her Hands : 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants .” Portland , Oregon : Timber Press , 2020 . ISBN : 9781604699029 , $ 35.00 . CBHL Award of Excellence in Biography , 2021 .
Keogh , Luke . “ The Wardian Case : How a Simple Box Moved Plants and Changed the World .” Chicago : University of Chicago Press , Richmond , Surrey , UK : Royal Botanic Gardens , Kew , 2020 . ISBN : 9780226713618 , $ 35.00 . CBHL Award of Excellence in History , 2021 .
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