Description
These pomological models are made of plaster and demonstrate the appearance of several varieties of apples and pears, such as Red Delicious apple, Bramley apple, Packham pear, Conference pear and Williams pear. This set was produced by the French model-maker Louis Jérôme Auzoux (1797–1880) as a teaching and reference model for botany and agronomy students. Institutions, such as Cornell University and Mount Holyoke in the United States, purchased models such as these to demonstrate their ability to compete against established teaching programmes and to circumvent traditional modes of acquiring botanical knowledge. As a medical student in Paris, Auzoux developed a special papier-mâché mixture (containing cork and clay as well as paper and glue) in order to produce anatomical models that could be taken apart piece by piece. After establishing a commercially successful factory in St. Aubin d’Ecrosville that produced clastic models of human anatomy, Auzoux’s company expanded to include examples of animals and plants.




05/11/2013
Created by: Allison Ksiazkiewicz on 05/11/2013