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Creeping Cereus

Botanical Print
1752 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Ehret, Georg Dionysus (artist)
Haid, Johann Jakob (engraver)
Place of origin
Nuremberg (printed)

Christoph Jacob Trew's book 'Plantae selectae...' reflects a new trend in lavish, privately funded publications on exotic plants in the eighteenth century. It includes about one hundred of Georg Ehret's finest studies. They range in style from the naturalistic and pictorial to the abstract and diagrammatic.

Georg Dionysius Ehret was an outstandingly successful botanical artist. He had family and professional links with the Chelsea Physic Garden so was well placed to study many exotics and new arrivals.

This cactus is given a scientific presentation with detailed dissections of flower and plant parts.

Object details

Categories
Printed Pages & Sheets
Science
Gardens & Gardening
Illustration
Object type
Botanical print
Titles
  • Creeping Cereus (popular title)
  • Disocactus flagelliformis (L.) Barthlott (generic title)
  • Plantae Selectae (series title)
Materials and techniques
Hand-coloured engraving
Printing Ink
Engraving
Hand-Colouring
Brief description
Creeping Cereus (Disocactus flagelliformis (L.) Barthlott); hand-coloured engraving by Johann Jakob Haid after a drawing by Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-70); 1752; proof of plate XXX, part 3 for 'Plantae Selectae...' by Christoph Jakob Trew (Nuremberg, 1750-1773)
Physical description
Botanical print of a pink-flowered cactus with trailing fronds, in a blue pot. Arranged across the top are drawings of parts of the plant.
Dimensions
  • Height: 51.2cm
  • Width: 35.2cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • Tab XXX. (Upper right)
  • CEREVS minimus scandens polygonus spinosissimus, flore purpureo Milleri Ehret Tab. II. fig. 3. / a. flos integer, b. idem per longitudinem dissectus, c.c. ovarium, d.d. calycis segmenta primo pilosa, e. stylus, f. ejus capitulum in magnitudine aucta, g. idem aliuis con- / formationis, h. in magnitudine aucta, i.i. stamina, k. staminis apex in magnitudine aucta, l. caulis crassitudo, m. novus caulis propultalans, n. fructus immaturus, / o. idem maturus, p. transverse dissectus, q. semen, r. idem in magnitudine aucta. (Lower centre)
  • (part 3 1752) Cactus (pencil)
  • [printed image labelled with letters a - r]
Gallery label
(2011)
Georg Dionysius Ehret
Creeping Cereus (Disocactus flagelliformis (L.) Barthlott)
1752

Georg Dionysius Ehret was an outstandingly successful botanical artist. He had family and professional links with the Chelsea Physic Garden so was well placed to study many exotics and new arrivals. This cactus is given a scientific presentation with detailed dissections of flower and plant parts.

Nuremberg
Hand-colourerd engraving: by Johann Jakob Haid (1704-67)
Proof of plate xxx from Christoph Jacob Trew, 'Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini...'
(Nuremberg, 1750-73)
Presented by H. Stuart Thompson
V&A: E.917-1924
Credit line
Given by H. Stuart Thompson
Subjects depicted
Plant Pot
Cactus (Plant)
Summary
Christoph Jacob Trew's book 'Plantae selectae...' reflects a new trend in lavish, privately funded publications on exotic plants in the eighteenth century. It includes about one hundred of Georg Ehret's finest studies. They range in style from the naturalistic and pictorial to the abstract and diagrammatic.

Georg Dionysius Ehret was an outstandingly successful botanical artist. He had family and professional links with the Chelsea Physic Garden so was well placed to study many exotics and new arrivals.

This cactus is given a scientific presentation with detailed dissections of flower and plant parts.
Bibliographic references
  • Trew, Christoph Jacob. Plantae selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini (Nuremberg, 1750-1773), plate 30, issued in part 3 in 1752.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design & Department of Paintings, Accessions 1924, published under the Authority of the Board of Education, London, 1926.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.917-1924

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O766614/creeping-cereus-botanical-print-ehret-georg-dionysus/
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