Championing seeds: Agnes Block (1629–1704) and her collection of flower drawings

The notable Dutch botanist and art collector, Agnes Block (1629–1704) created a remarkable garden at her country estate Vijverhof near Utrecht. She commissioned many artists to record her plants in watercolour and often annotated her drawings on the verso with information including the plant’s name, the date the seed was sown, when the plant bloomed and intriguingly the alchemical symbols for the sun and mercury. From a close study of drawings from Block’s collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Derby Collection, Knowsley Hall, it is clear to see that they were not static but ‘live’ studies, updated over the years to include seeds, seedpods and fruits as and when they became available to paint. These later additions, as argued here, may also have been in response to the classification of plants according to fructification, a system used by Robert Morison in Oxford and advocated by Block’s friend and advisor, Paul Hermann in Leiden that championed a plant’s seeds and fruits over any other characteristic. As is demonstrated in this essay, seeds were hugely valuable to Block as well: becoming almost like a currency, they gave her a reason to strike up exchanges with reputable and learned botanists of her day as she offered and requested seeds that were especially rare while her efforts to ensure they were recorded in her drawings tells us a great deal more about her inquisitive nature and botanical knowledge.