The Glass Flowers At Harvard

Plot

"An artistic marvel in the field of science and scientific marvel in the field of art." These words aptly describe Harvard University's greatest tourist attraction, drawing tens of thousands of visitors annually--the world-famous Ware Collection of Glass Models of Plants. To see them at Harvard is to be astounded; to see them brought to life by the extraordinary photographs in this stunning book is to know they are miracles of the glassmaker's art. The glass flowers were created during the years 1887 to 1936 by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in Dresden, Germany, whose skills, obviously, were superlative. The collection is fast: together the Blaschkas made approximately 580 life-size models representing some 780 species and varieties of plants in 164 families, along with over 4,300 detailed models of enlarged flowers and anatomical sections of various floral and vegetative parts of the plants.