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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Typ 1284

Scully & Scully nonsense botany plates based on Edward Lear drawings

Overview

Two salad or dessert plates decorated with nonsense botanical specimens inspired by or copied from drawings by Edward Lear.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1970-1975

Creator

Language of Materials

Caption labels of the "plants" are in English made into mock Latin.

Condition Description

Good.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Extent

.04 linear feet (2 objects)

Two 7.5" china plates from the six-plate set issued by Scully & Scully in the 1970s, showing nonsense botanical figures with mock Latin caption names; based on or copied from nonsense drawings by Edward Lear. The two present are "Phattfacia Stupenda"; and "Piggiwiggia Pyramidalis".

Biographical / Historical

Edward Lear was an English artist and author of, among other genres, nonsense verse and drawings; the connection between these plates and actual drawings by Lear is unclear. The plates, manufactured by at least two companies, were widely available in the 1970s and 1980s.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2020MH-2. Source unknown.

Dimensions

7.5 inches in diameter

Processing Information

Processed by Melanie Wisner, 2019.

Creator

Title
Scully & Scully nonsense botany plates based on Edward Lear drawings, circa 1970-1975 (MS Typ 1284): Guide
Status
completed
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard University
Date
2019 September 3
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou03258

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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