{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O88973"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O88973/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EL5437/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EL5437/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2010EL5437","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AG2227","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O88973/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O88973","accessionNumber":"E.4107-1911","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"Snake's Head Fritillary","type":"popular title"},{"title":"Fritillaria meleagris","type":"popular title"},{"title":"Asgrauw Maior","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"Fritillaria augustifolia","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Eisenberger was a painter and engraver who worked in the German city of Nuremberg. He seems to have specialised in botanical subjects. Eisenberger follows botanical convention by including a dissection of the flower. As the inscription suggests ('ad viv. fec.'), it was drawn from life. This drawing is livelier than illustrations intended for scientific publications. \r\n\r\nAn engraving of this drawing appeared on plate 25 in the first volume of Hortus Nitidissimis (published 1750-68) , for which Christoph Trew commissioned some of the drawings from local illustrators. This was not a scientific work; its subtitle translates as 'The flower-garden in finest bloom throughout the year, or pictures of the most beautiful flowers’. \r\n\r\nCelebrated in one sixteenth century book for ‘beautifieing... our gardens, and the bosoms of the beautifull’, the Snake’s Head Fritillary has been a favourite of botanical illustrators and, though it had no medicinal use, it even appeared in herbals.","physicalDescription":"Botanical study showing bulb, stems and two flower heads. To the left is another flower head, separately drawn.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Eisenberger, Nikolaus-Friedrich","id":"A11427"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"},{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting (technique)","id":"THES250889"},{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour on paper","categories":[{"text":"Illustration","id":"THES48938"},{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"},{"text":"Science","id":"THES48898"},{"text":"Gardens & Gardening","id":"THES49002"},{"text":"Botanical art","id":"THES277744"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2010EL5437","2006AG2227"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF (VA)","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"TOPIC","shelf":"DP3","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}],[{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Nuremberg","id":"x29057"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"probably ca. 1750-1773","earliest":"1745-01-01","latest":"1773-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"48.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"31.6","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"N.F. Eisenberger ad viv: fec:","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"ink","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"1) Signature","note":"1) Signature; ink"},{"content":"FRITILLARIA augustifolia, flore parvo, gemino, ex albo, cinereo / et purpureo laetiori obscuriorique tesselato, Batavis. ASGRAUW MAIOR / dicta.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"Latin","medium":"ink","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Latin; ink, lower centre"}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"Eisenberger also produced 170 plates for the revised and expanded version of Elizabeth Blackwell's <i>A Curious Herbal</i>, which was first published in 1737. Dr C. J. Trew published the revised edition in Nuremberg between 1754 and 1773. He called it <i>Herbarium Blackwellianum</i>. Blackwell's original illustrations were adequate but rather naive and awkward, so Trew asked Eisenberger to make better ones.","briefDescription":"Botanical study, watercolour depicting Snake's Head Fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris, by Nikolaus-Friedrich Eisenberger, probably ca. 1750-1773; German.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, Accessions 1911</u>, London, Printed for His Majesty’s Stationery Office 1912"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"flower, snake's head fritillary","id":"x47194"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.4107-1911"],"accessionNumberNum":"4107","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1911,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-30","recordCreationDate":"2004-01-08","availableToBook":false}}