Botanical model by Brendel Company

Botanical model by ROBERT & REINHOLD BRENDEL (Germany, 1821-1927).
"Succisa", ca. 1900. Part of a collection of 7 pieces.
Collection made of papier mache, wood, iron, cold painted lacquer.
All in good condition with original label.
Provenance: private collection.
Measurements: 50 cm (approx. height).

The one we are now bidding for is a botanical model manufactured by the German company Robert Brendel produced for use in the study of botany. It takes the form of a Succisa, a genus of the former family Dipsacaceae now a subfamily of Caprifoliaceae which has about 80 species, the most important being S. pratensis. It comprises 83 described species and of these, only 2 are accepted.

Brendel models represent various botanical types (algae, bacteria, mosses, ferns and higher plants) at different scales to facilitate their study. The techniques are varied (papier-mâché, gelatin, plaster, wood, among others) to achieve forms faithful to plant nature. Some of these models also have parts that can be disassembled for the study of internal structures, which is why they are also called "classical" models.

The company of Robert Brendel (ca. 1821 - 1898) and his son Reinhold Brendel (ca. 1861 - 1927), called Brendel Company, produced between 1860 and 1920 and offered more than 200 models in their catalogs organized according to the taxonomic classification proposed by Adolf Engler (1844-1930). This type of didactic material had a wide circulation in its time, so much so that it was massively distributed in institutions of higher education, secondary schools and natural history museums all over the world. Initially the company only created models for medicinal plants but later also specialized in models for plants used in agriculture.