Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0008448, Sun, 24 Aug 2003 18:30:01 -0700

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Ada's Glass Fish-and-Flower Department (I,2)
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EDNOTE

The September 2003 _Scientific American_ has a short illustrated piece entitled "Friable Flowers. Glass under Glass: Harvard University's Unusual BotanicaL Collection" by Marguerite Holloway (pp. 108-09). The Ware Collection of Glass Models of Plants is part of the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

As all good Nabokovians know, Nabokov transplanted this garden into ADA in Section, chapter 2:

"Next day Demon was having tea at his favorite hotel with a Bohemian lady whom he had never seen before and was never to see again (she desired his recommendation for a job in the Glass Fish-and-Flower department in a Boston Museum)...." (13).

In additron to the websites and print items recommended in the article, I suggest
http://www.urania-dresden.de/Blaschka_engl.html that tells the story of the Bohemian father and son (Leopold & Rudolph Blaschka) who created the model glass flowers and fish between 1886 and 1936.
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