Etched Glass Tapered Vases

The New York Botanical Garden in association with Barreveld International, a leader in distinctive designs for the home, has developed a superb collection of etched glass vases and decorative accessories inspired by some of the finest examples of botanical art in the Rare Book Collections of the Mertz Library here at the Garden. Combining historical botanical imagery with a contemporary approach to design, these exciting pieces were created with today’s gardener and plant enthusiast in mind.

The images of butterflies and flowers etched on these glass vases are from illustrations by the remarkable Dutch artist and scientist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). When she was 52, Merian took an astonishing voyage to the Dutch colony of Surinam in South America, where she spent two years studying and drawing indigenous plants and insects. These magnificent works of art and science, augmented with her studies of European species, were published in 1771 in Histoire générale des insectes de Surinam et de toute l’Europe.

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