Ornithogalum paradoxum from Von Jacquin – Albuca bracteata
Antique Botanical Engraving from Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin’s Collectaneorum supplementum
Elegant late 18th Century copperplate engraving of Ornithogalum paradoxum Jacq. , Albuca bracteata – the Pregnant Onion or Sea Onion.
Albuca bracteata is native to South Africa (The Cape Provinces and KwaZulu-Natal). Today it is primarily grown as a houseplant.
Texts about this plate from the book.
TAB. 1.
Latin transcription:
Ornithogalum paradoxum foliorum post florescentiam. Idem florens ante folia. Flos auctus cum bractea. Petalum antice conspectum cum Stamine auctum. Pistillum auctum.
English translation:
Ornithogalum paradoxum with leaves after flowering. The same plant flowering before the leaves appear. The flower enlarged with bract. A petal viewed from the front with enlarged stamen. The pistil enlarged.
This rare series of hand-colored engravings comes from Collectaneorum Supplementum cum figuris coloratis, published in Vienna in 1797 by the Austrian naturalist Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin. The work contains a small group of finely engraved and delicately colored plates illustrating botanical and mycological subjects observed and described by Jacquin in the late eighteenth century.
The plates are notable for their clarity and scientific precision. Each subject is presented in isolation against a clean background, often accompanied by analytical details such as magnified sections, host leaves, or growth substrates. The coloring, applied by hand at the time of publication, enhances structural features while retaining the restrained elegance typical of Viennese scientific illustration of the period.
Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin (1727–1817) was one of the most important naturalists of the Habsburg Enlightenment. Born in Leiden and educated in medicine and botany, he was invited to Vienna by Emperor Francis I. Jacquin undertook expeditions to the Caribbean and Central America in the 1750s, collecting plants and animals for the imperial collections at Schönbrunn Palace. He later became professor of botany and chemistry at the University of Vienna and director of the imperial gardens. Over his long career, he published numerous influential works that helped shape modern botanical and mycological study.
Collectaneorum Supplementum represents Jacquin’s continued commitment to careful observation and publication of new or little-known species. The plates reflect the transitional period of eighteenth-century taxonomy, when fungi and plants were still being organized within broad Linnaean categories that would later be refined by nineteenth-century systematists.
Today, engravings from this work are appreciated both for their scientific importance and for their understated aesthetic appeal. Their combination of Enlightenment scholarship, precise line engraving, and subtle hand coloring makes them highly suitable for collectors of early natural history prints and for interiors that favor classical botanical imagery with historical depth.
