Cuisse Madame and Chair à Dame, Antique Dutch Pear Engraving, 1790

This original hand-colored copper engraving presents ten named pear varieties, each lettered with its name and the months of its ripening: Enkelde Keyserin, Epargne, Cuisse Madame, Cassolette, Citron de Sirene, Bourdon, Admiral, Muscat-Fleury, Chair à Dame and Frontignac-Peer. The group is dominated by the long, elegantly curved summer pears, Cuisse Madame above all, whose name describes its shape and which was among the most sought-after July pears in Europe. Knoop drew all ten from the living fruit at full size, setting them at angles that show the sweep of the neck and the set of the stalk. Hand-applied watercolor over the engraved hatching gives the greens and amber yellows their variation, pooling on one cheek and lapping over the outline in places.

This sheet was published at Amsterdam and Dordrecht in 1790 by Allart, Holtrop, de Leeuw and Krap, in Johann Hermann Knoop's description and figures of the best sorts of apples and pears, introduced by Johannes Florentius Martinet. Knoop had charge of the Mariënburg garden at Leeuwarden and knew his fruit as a working gardener rather than a compiler, which is why his plates are still consulted on old Dutch varieties. Each is a copper engraving finished by hand in watercolor, the washes sitting over the engraved line and varying in strength from fruit to fruit as only hand color does.

The French names on this sheet, Cuisse Madame, Chair à Dame, Citron de Sirene, show how completely Dutch gardens of the period had absorbed the pear culture of France, and Knoop's service was to set those names against the fruit itself and the month it ripened. These are table pears, grown for the dessert course rather than for storing, and the elongated silhouettes make the plate unusually graceful on a wall. It hangs well in a dining room or a hallway where the eye can follow the long verticals of the fruit, and for a collector it is one of the most appealing sheets in the pear series.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.

This is an original antique plate, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.