This grant was awarded in 2022 and accounted for in that year, but the purchase was not completed in time for inclusion in the 2022 Annual Report.
Molly Prentice, Development Manager, writes: The Garden Museum is incredibly grateful to Friends of the National Libraries for their generous support with this acquisition – a unique volume and incredible historical resource. The Carnations manuscript provides a fascinating, personal insight into early 18th-century floristry and religious belief, from shoemaker and amateur botanist, Richard Hammond.
Carnations is a significant acquisition for the Garden Museum and will be displayed as part of our permanent collection. The museum is rich in papers from the 19th- and early 20th-century botanical and horticultural clubs but material is very sparse from the 1700s. There is relatively little information about early florists and few records exist detailing the societies to which they belonged. As such, this manuscript is incredibly rare and invaluable in illuminating this period of the history of horticulture in Britain and beyond.
Hammond’s watercolour illustrations, whilst naïve, are beautiful, remaining vibrant and intact. Carnations records his experiences in the cultivation of carnations, roses, annuals and perennials. The manuscript has 18 illustrations and mostly focusses on his special interest, the aforementioned carnations, but gives wider information about plants grown to accompany them, as well as pests, pollination and early applied taxonomy. This is all accompanied by Hammond’s written notes and musings on religion, philosophy and rural life in 18th-century Suffolk. The variety of plants discussed adds to our understanding of the diversity of the plants which regional growers from less affluent backgrounds were able to acquire and grow at this time. Meanwhile, we also see Hammond’s personal contemplations on the trials of his lower-middle class social context, as his scribblings lament ‘A precaution against tomorrow’s evils’ and ‘Advice to parents to take well the death of their children’. The above represents a golden combination of horticulture and social history, which is of great interest to the Garden Museum’s audiences.
An additional historical quirk of the manuscript is that the title page is, rather unusually, printed, a practice that is rarely seen. It was likely produced by John Bagnall of Ipswich, who founded the Ipswich Journal, the town’s first paper. Bagnall printed advertisements for Hammond’s Florist Feasts and it therefore records an important relationship between Hammond and the printing industry as means of distributing information and widening interest in, and access to information about, floristry – without which perhaps the Garden Museum would not exist!
The acquisition of Carnations offers numerous opportunities to engage the public as part of new and existing programmes. Our school sessions explore concepts of science, art and horticulture through objects in the collection. Hammond’s Carnations is a valuable additional resource for our existing taxonomy and biology lessons for secondary school children, deepening their understanding of plant classifications and giving historical context for how these concepts developed throughout history. It also provides a firsthand glimpse of historical contexts for modern methods of garden management, and the long-standing frustrations inherent in floristry.
Children also learn about habitats, biodiversity, pests and methods of control. In one illustration of Carnations, Hammond records with humour and exasperation ‘O Look what the earwig have done!’. In addition, the watercolour illustrations will be used to inspire painting classes for younger children and families, hosted in the Museum.
The Garden Museum is grateful to Friends of the National Libraries, not only for their financial aid, but for their enthusiasm and encouragement around the acquisition, which we share wholeheartedly.
