Botanical Model of a Tulip (Tulipa gesneriana) by Robert Brendel

Botanical model of a tulip (Tulipa gesneriana) by Robert Brendel.
Papier-mâché and wood.
Germany.
ca. 1900.
h. 51 cm (20 in).

Botanical model of a tulip (Tulip gesneriana), designed in the late 19th century in the German workshops of Robert Brendel.

Founded in 1866 in Breslau (now in present-day Poland), the company established by Robert Brendel gained increasing recognition for its enlarged and modular botanical models. After Robert’s death in 1898, his son Reinhold Brendel took over the company. Now based in Grünewald, a suburb of Berlin, the business added to the distinctions earned under Robert’s direction—at exhibitions in Moscow (1872), Cologne (1890), and most notably at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago—with a prestigious medal awarded at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris.

The Brendel botanical models, named after their creator, were originally intended for teaching botany in German universities. Their success soon inspired institutions across Europe to adopt them as well—in England, the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, France, and especially Italy.

To serve this educational purpose, the workshop's most advanced models were designed with multiple removable parts, as in this example, where the corolla and a portion of the stem can be detached to reveal a cross-section of the flower.

Now rare and fragile, most Brendel flower models are preserved in natural history museums or within the collections of prestigious universities. They can be found, for example, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., the universities of Bologna and Florence, the National Museum in Liverpool, and the University of Lille.

This tulip model is listed as No. 200 in the Preisliste über Botanische Modelle.

Sources

Preisliste über Botanische Modelle gefertigt und herausgegegeben von R. Brendel, Berlin, 1900.