Birthday
HydrangeasGlass flowers sound like a fragile fantasy, yet one of the world’s most famous collections was made as a teaching aid for botanists. Here is the story of the Blaschka glass flowers, which still astonish with their accuracy, and of modern artists who turn glass into giant blooms.
Fresh flowers as striking as glass: peony-style roses and flowers in a box.
The Blaschka collection
In the 19th century botanists struggled to show students living plants all year round: herbarium specimens lost colour and shape, and wax models melted. In 1886 Harvard professor George Lincoln Goodale commissioned plant models from the Dresden glass artists Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, already famous for their glass marine invertebrates. The work was funded by Elizabeth Ware and her daughter Mary Lee Ware.
Father and son — and, after Leopold’s death in 1895, Rudolf alone — worked on the commission until 1936. Harvard received more than four thousand models representing about 780 plant species: whole flowering branches, enlarged flower sections, stamens and pollen. The collection is on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
How glass flowers are made
Most fine details are made by lampworking: glass rods are heated in a torch flame, then drawn out, bent and fused. The Blaschkas combined glass with wire armatures and added colour with paints and enamels. They passed their methods on to no one, so people are still trying to reproduce their work.
Glass flowers today
Today’s glass artists work on a different scale. The American artist Jason Gamrath, for example, makes flowers and plants many times larger than life — the works shown in this article’s illustrations. Glass flowers decorate interiors, exhibitions and private collections, and small lampwork pieces can be found at craft fairs.
For other handmade flowers, see clay and cold porcelain flowers; for floral motifs in jewellery, flowers in jewellery; and for flowers in painting and photography, flower portraits.
FAQ
Why did Harvard need glass flowers?
For teaching: glass models keep their shape and colour for years, so plants can be studied in any season.
Can you see the collection today?
Yes, it is on display at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
View full-size photo
Author: Maria Svitlovir
Graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Biology and Medicine (2001). BSc in Biology, MSc in Horticulture. Writes about plants, works at a garden centre selecting and repotting plants, and contributes to plant reference guides.
