Pomona Britannica: No. 72 - Amicua (Melon) (published 1812): Art, History and Details

Pomona Britannica: No. 72 - Amicua (Melon) (published 1812) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is George Brookshaw (British, 1751–1823).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This color aquatint etching is one plate from George Brookshaw’s 1812 illustrated volume Pomona Britannica. Named after the Roman goddess of fruit trees, gardens, and orchards, Brookshaw intended the volume to be the English “country gentleman’s” guide to the science of classifying and identifying fruits (pomology). Many of Brookshaw’s models came from the Royal Gardens at Hampton Court and Kensington Gardens. Each print featured one fruit, often life-size, including detailed depictions of its flower and leaves. Printed in color with hand-painted highlights, this and other illustrated botanicals formed an essential part of the cultured English library in the early 19th century.

Object facts

• Title: Pomona Britannica: No. 72 - Amicua (Melon)
• Date: published 1812
• Creator attribution: George Brookshaw (British, 1751–1823)
• Culture: England
• Type: Print
• Technique: aquatint and stipple engraving printed in color and hand colored
• Dimensions: Platemark: 45 x 37.5 cm (17 11/16 x 14 3/4 in.); Sheet: 56.7 x 45 cm (22 5/16 x 17 11/16 in.)
• Collection: PR - Aquatint
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2020.167

A detail from the museum

Originally from North Africa, melons are recorded in England as early as the 1500s.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• Rager, Andrea Wolk. "George Brookshaw." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 50-55. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.