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Brendel flower models

The collection includes about 20 of the flower models made by Robert and Reinhold Brendel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The models are made from  papier-mâché with other materials including plaster, glass beads, wood, cotton and rattan added to give detail or texture. They can be taken apart to reveal internal details (although they’re not always simple to put back together again). The Brendels were advised on the accuracy of their models by various Professors, depending on what the particular model was intended to show. As well as plants, models of fungi, yeast and bacteria were eventually included.
Dealers included the models in their own catalogues, but Delft has the only known surviving Brendel catalogue, issued in Berlin in 1913.

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55 comments

Hello Lesley,

I’m Irina Stolyarova from St. Petersburg, Russia. I am a botanical artist and am currently researching the topic of Brendel models. I recently discovered that the University of St. Petersburg in 1897 under the head of the department H. Gobi (1847-1919) purchased a collection of Brendel models. A total of about 300 issues were purchased.

The Brendel catalog would be very useful for my research and I would be very grateful if you could send me a PDF copy of it.
Thank you very much
Sincerely Irina Stolyarova

Hallo Lesley,
I’m Stefania Accordi from Mantova (Italy). Working on the historical collections of my former high school (Liceo Virgilio) i’ve found a dozen of Brendel models purchased in 1915.
The Brendel catalogue would be really useful for my research and I’d be very grateful if you could send me a PDF copy. Thank you very much
Stefania

Hi,
I am a biologist from the Jagiellonian University. Could I also get the pdf of the catalog?

Hello: We are just staring the process of conserving a collection of 25 Brendel models at our University in the prairie province of Saskatchewan, Canada. They are in generally good shape but need cleaning and some minor repairs. Would you be able to send me a copy of the catalogue? I am hopeful that this would help us determine if we have missing parts in our models. Thank you in advance and for saving this important document. I am a Professor in the Department of Biology.

I will need to send it from my office, and as we’re on a Lockdown Light, I’m only there on one day a week. I’ll try and send it next week.

Dear Lesley, I am a conservation intern with the Bolton Museum (UK) and we just started work on some Brendel botany models. It would be lovely to have the catalogue for reference. May we get a copy of the PDF from you?

Thank you!

Hello Lesley,
I am a conservator in art objets and in January I’ll have to work on Brendel flowers models. Do you think you can send me the catalogue to help me in my restoration ? I would be very grateful if you can.
Yours sincerely,
Caroline.

Hello Lesley
I work at the Museu de Ciências in Coimbra (Portugal). We have several Brendel models. We also are looking for this catalog for a long time! We would be very grateful if you could send us this PDF. Thank you.

Will do, asap, probably next week.

Hei Lesley, I am a conservator at the University Museum in Bergen. We have a set of 9 gelatin bacterial models, which I suspect to be Brendel. The Vibrio cholerae model looks a lot like the one you have pictured. Would you be willing to email me a copy of the catalogue to look into this further? Best regards, Ruth

As I said, when I can get into my office, I can send you a pdf.
Hopefully it will not be long.

Olá Lesley Robertson!
Obrigada por responder minha mensagem rapidamente.
É possível o envio do catálogo por email? Se for possível, poderia enviá-lo para mim? Estou finalizando minha dissertação e esse material seria muito bom para concluir minha pesquisa.
Aguardo seu retorno.
Espero que essa pandemia acabe logo para voltarmos as nossas atividades rotineira.
Abraço

In reply to both your messages.
The only way would be for me to email you a pdf of the catalogue. Delft University is currently closed as part of the national Coronavirus lockdown, and I will be unable to help until the situation improves and I can get into my office.
Sorry.

Olá! Como faço para ter acesso ao catálogo? Sou pesquisadora da USP e estudo essas coleções em um museu escolar no Brasil.Fico a disposição para maiores detalhes.

Olá ! Sou pesquisadora da USP e gostaria de saber como ter acesso a esse catálogo,pois realizo pequisa sobre a coleção Brandel em um museu escolar do Brasil. Fico a disposição para mais esclarecimentos.

I’ll email a copy to you when I’m in Delft next week.

I have just identified what are possibly two Brendel models at my university. It would be very useful to have the PDF of the catalogue to see if they are in it. Email me directly if you wish.

I’m sorry, but as I have said before, I can only share the catalogue with academic collections. I can’t make an exception for one request.

I’m sorry, but I don’t know the answer to this. I know that there’s a good collection in Antwerp. You could check their website.

Hello, do you know any university in Belgium’s Flemish part who owns Brendel flowers? I’m writing an article about the Botanical models for “Collect” magasine. Betty De Stefano. Collectors Gallery Brussels.

Hi lesly ,

My wife and I have been collectors of biology and anatomical models for years.
We now believe that we want to limit our collection to only brendel models.
That is why I would be very grateful if we could receive the catalog in PDF.
All best Sander

dear antiquarian from Holland, I’ve missed your email address, please can you kindly write me again? Alessandro from Italy (sorry webmaster for this message, but I’ve got an important contact starting from this page… thanks for your understanding!)

Hello Lesley,
Thanks for your information on this site. I am undertaking research on a university collection of approximately 40 Brendel models. I would be very grateful if you could email me the PDF as a reference to catalogue these models.
Thanks, Marion

It sounds as though we have more in common than just Brendel since we have the Van Iterson collection. I’ll email you.
Lesley

Dear Lesley,

I have the container of a Brendel model of phyllotaxy.
The glass cylinder is inscribed with a series of curves.
On the base is a marking, (2/5)360 = 144 degrees, indicating a phyllotaxy of 2/5 (five leaves in two circuits of the stem). The actual plant is missing and I should very much like to learn what it was like. I presume that it is in the catalogue. Would it be possible to have access to a PDF copy of the catalogue? I am a mathematician and should like to write a short article on phyllotaxy and Fibonacci for my blog (thatsmaths.com). I shall be happy to acknowledge your assistance.

Many thanks,

Peter.

ah ok, it’s a pity as I’ve the same passion of an academic 😉 and I love share my knowledge with other collectors that love these beatiful models… but of course I respect your constraint, thanks anyway for your kind feedback. My best from Turin! Alessandro

I am sorry, but I am only able to share files with fellow academics.

Hello Anna,
I am familiar with your book. It’s beautiful.
I will not be in the Archive until next week, but will send it then.

Hello, thanks a lot for share this great pics from the catalogue. I’m a private collector and I’m going to have a good number of Brendel models but unfortunately they’ll be not in good condition and they’ll require important restoration. Having the catalogue as reference would be an invaluable source for me: it’d be possible to receive it? Thanks in any case for your attention, my best from Italy! 🙂

Hello, thanks a lot for share this great pics from the catalogue. I’m a private collector and I’m going to have a significant number of Brendel models but unfortunately they’ll be not in good condition and they’ll require important restoration. Having the catalogue as reference would be an invaluable source for me: it’d be possible to receive it? Thanks in any case for your attention, my best from Italy! 🙂

Dear Lesley,

I am also interested in seeing this pdf. I’m an historian and I recently published a book on educational wall charts (The Botanical Wall Chart, 2016, University of Chicago Press), and now researching the history of 3-D models as well. Are you able email me a copy, please? Many thanks for making this available.

Yours,
Anna

Can you please let me have your University email address so that I can send it. You can send it to my email account.

Good evening,
I am working on a team project at the University of Bologna and it would be useful to us to have access to the catalogue. It is possible to have a PDF?

Kind Regards,
Elena Domenicucci

Dear Lesley
Please may I also have a PDF of the catalogue?
I am not an academic only an amateur enthusiast but I would be extremely grateful to see what the catalogue looked like and what was available.
Kind regards
Richard

Hello I’m Betty De Stefano in Brussels
I’m interested because I love these flowers. I had a collection in the past that I had to sold when I divorced. and would love to collect them again.

Are you (with an academic institution? I prefer to know who I’m sharing files with!

hello, it would be lovely to have a pdf of this catalog. thank you. Betty (betty@collectors-gallery.com)

I’ll email a copy to you later today.

Hi Lesley
I work at the Herbarium LY in Lyon (France). We have a lot of Brendel models. We are looking for this catalog for a long time ! (very useful for identification and broken pieces). I would be very grateful if you could send us this PDF. Thank you.

Are you (or your wife) with an academic institution?
I prefer to know who I’m sharing files with!

Hi Lesley,

I hardly dare to ask, but could you e-mail the pdf of the Brendel catalogue to me as well? It is sort of the best thing I could give my wife for her birthday as the real Brendel models sell for astronomic prices nowadays! Many thanks!

Are you with an academic institution?

Hi,
I’m interested in these beautiful Mendel models. Can you please send me the PDF catalog ? Thank you very much, Julie Ceylan

I will email a copy to you.

Hi Lesley

My name is Marina, I am a student at the University of Porto. I am researching on the botanical models of Robert Brendel.
The Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto, has some dozens of these models.
We do not have a Brendel catalog. I would be very grateful if you could send us a catalog.
Thank you for your help in this matter

I will email a copy to you.

Hi Lesley
I work at the Department of Botany of St. Petersburg State University (Russia). We have 172 Brandel models. They are in different degree of safety. Unfortunately, we do not have a Brendel catalog. I would be very grateful if you could send us a catalog. Thank you.

Thank you very much for all those informations Lesley And thank you for the catalogue.

Anna

Yes, I’ll send you a catalogue pdf when I get back to my office on Monday.
The first model on the colour photo is a lily.
The early Brendel models all have that distinctive circular black foot and stand. Slightly later ones have rectangular black feet, the most modern one in our collection has a green foot that is not wood (I’m not sure what it is, from memory).
If you don’t hear from me on Monday or Tuesday next, please remind me…

Hello Lesley,

I’m working on an exhibition at the Musée National de l’Education in Rouen (France) and we are going to expose some models of flowers of Louis Auzoux as well as some of Brendel. We are trying to identify some of these models that we have in reserve, they don’t have any name or data but I recognized one of them on first picture you have put. I think it might be a lily flower but I’m not sure. Would it be possible for you to send me the PDF catalogue of your flower models ?

Best regards,

Anna

Oh I apologise, I misread your previous comment to mean you had already sent the file!

I am a student of conservation, and am researching a Brendel model: understanding how many models were made in this series, whether my particular model was available at this time (or if it is a later model), and how the materials are described in the original catalogue, would be an exceptionally helpful contribution to my research. Any assistance will be most gratefully received and acknowledged.

Thank you again

I haven’t sent the pdf yet – I prefer to know who I’m sharing files with, first!
I’ll be back in my office on Monday, and will send it then.

Hi Lesley
Thank you for replying so quickly!
I am researching conservation/cleaning aspects, and the catalogue will help me in placing the significance of the model within the broader Brendel universe.
May I please ask you to resend the PDF? It seems that it has not yet reached my email address.
Many thanks again, and please feel free to communicate directly via by email.
Karen

I’d have to send you a pdf file.

I’m curious – what aspect are you researching?

I am sincerely interested in the Brendel catalogue – it would significantly contribute to my research. Is it possible to view it online or in PDF?

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