The Vegetable Garden by Vilmorin-Andrieux

"Album Vilmorin: The Vegetable Garden" (Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie, 1850-1895)

When the first plate of the Album Vilmorin was published in 1850, Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie was already a very well-established company that could look back over an impressive history, one that had started 107 years earlier. Over the years, Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie gradually evolved into one of the world’s leading plant and seed suppliers, and one that was actively engaged in its own research programmes in order to optimize the quality of seeds. The subjects of these large-scale plates of the Album Vilmorin are various economic plants as cultivated in kitchen gardens and on a commercial scale, and ranging from beets, potatoes and cauliflower right up to muskmelon and strawberries. The company Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie used these high-quality colour lithographs to market its wide assortment of seeds to the public. Illustrations were made by highly regarded botanical artists such as Elisa-Honorine Champin, Auguste Faguet and others.

(© 2010 TASCHEN GmbH)