#facsimilles

Swan Upping 2017: Day 2

Yesterday began the annual census of the Mute Swan population on the River Thames. It’s day two and we will talk a little about the history of the Swan Upping event. Official royal ownership of Mute Swans in England began in the 12th century when any unmarked swan became property of the crown. In the 14th century the office “Keeper of the King’s Swans” came into existence. There were also several private swan owners who employed swan herds to maintain their flocks. Before the young swans, cygnets, were able to fly they were rounded up along with their parents, the cob and pen, and to claim ownership they were given marks on their bills to match those of the parents. To own swans and to serve them up as a ceremonial dish at banquets was a display of status. 

Along with the Royal Swan Uppers, there are two other groups that are granted rights to the mute swans on the River Thames, the Worshipful Company of Vintners and the Worshipful Company of Dyers. The original purpose of Swan Upping was to ensure ownership of the swans and a ready supply of meat for the royal and livery company banquets. Today the process is more about conservation and ensuring the health of the Mute Swan population.

The images above are from  De Arte Venandi cum Avibus. Ms. Pal. Lat. 1071, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Facsimile reproduction by Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz. Printed in Austria 1969. See our other post featuring this manuscript.

The Royal Swan Uppers, the Vintners, and the Dyers, with their identifying banners, using their skiffs to gather a family of swans.

Flora and Sylva

As we continue to progress through our gift processing, we came across this pleasant little item from an anonymous donor: Glass Flowers from the Ware Collection in the Botanical Museum of Harvard University; Insect Pollination Series, published in New York by Harcourt, Brace and Company in 1940. Now housed at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, this remarkable collection of flower facsimiles was commissioned by Prof. George Lincoln Goodale, financed by Elizabeth C. Ware and her daughter Mary Lee Ware as a gift to the Harvard University, and produced entirely in glass by the German artisans Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka from 1887 to 1936. 

According to this slim publication, the Ware Collection “contains specimens illustrating 164 families of flowering plants, a selected group of cryptogams illustrating complicated life-histories, a group of models exhibiting the relation of insects to the transference of pollen, and a group of rosaceous fruits illustrating the effect of fungus diseases.” More information about the collection along with a video on the collection’s restoration can be found at the Harvard Museum of Natural History website.