Friedrich Justin Bertuch | Die Rosen-arten nach Natur, 1804, contemporary morocco portfolio

Friedrich Justin Bertuch

Die Rosen-arten nach Natur gezeichnet aus der Sammlung des H.S.W. Legations Raths, F.I. Bertuch zu Weimar. 1804

Folio (355 x 254 mm.), 50 original watercolour drawings of roses, contemporary morocco portfolio with original ties and blue satin pastedown

FROM THE LIBRARY OF MARIA FEODOROVNA, EMPRESS CONSORT OF RUSSIA.

A most attractive portfolio of original watercolours depicting roses and their rose hips by the councillor and secretary to Duke Karl August of Saxony-Weimar, Baron von Bertuch. A friend of Goethe's, Bertuch was a patron of the arts and this collection of flower paintings was exceptionally regarded. Bertuch founded a factory for the production of artificial flowers in 1782, eventually employing 10% of Weimar's population and selling across Germany.

Maria Feodorovna was born Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg and was chosen as Paul I of Russia's second wife by Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine the Great. She was a passionate artist, designer and horticulturalist, and the palaces of Pavlovsk, Gatchina, Tsarskoe Selo, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, and The Hermitage were remodelled and furnished under her personal guidance. At Pavlovsk, she employed the Italian architect Carlo Rossi to redesign the library so that it could house more than twenty thousand books.