Item 3 - Thomas Blaikie accounts book 'Comptes Particulier de B'

Identity area

Reference code

GB 235 BLT/1/3

Title

Thomas Blaikie accounts book 'Comptes Particulier de B'

Date(s)

  • 1789 - 1822 (Creation)
  • 1789 - 2003 (Accumulation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

One green vellum bound notebook with cotton tapes.

One loose handwritten note on A4 sized paper.

Context area

Name of creator

(1751-1838)

Biographical history

Thomas Blaikie was born in 1751 in Corstorphine, the son of a market gardener. It is suggested he may have been a student gardener at RBGE and possibly then worked at Kew, the Hammersmith nursery and Upton House in East Ham for Dr John Fothergill. He was engaged jointly by Dr Fothergill and Dr William Pitcairn to undertake a plant collecting trip in the Swiss Alps from April to December 1775. In September 1776 James Lee of the Hammersmith Nursery engaged Blaikie to provide plants for the Comte de Lauraguais and he was subsequently employed to work on the Comte’s garden in Normandy. From 1778 he was employed in the gardens at Bagatelle by the Comte D’Artois, the youngest brother of Louis XVI and future Charles X. He also worked at St Leu, Monceau and Le Raincy for the Duc de Chartres (who later became Duc D’Orleans and then Philippe Égalité) and undertook a number of private commissions. It is also thought that he was involved in making alterations to the gardens at Malmaison.

Blaikie is credited with introducing the English style of gardening and British gardeners to France, where his method of grafting came to be known as ‘graffe Blaikie’. He died at his house on the rue de Vignes in Paris in 1838. His diaries covering the period 1775 to 1792 were published in 1931, entitled ‘Diary of a Scotch Gardener at the French Court at the end of the Eighteenth Century’.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

One green vellum bound notebook containing accounts for customers arranged by surname. A number of pages have been removed. The earliest entry is January 1789 and latest is June 1822.

Contains a loose handwritten note compiled in 2003 detailing the missing pages and method of their removal and noting that it was faxed to Pat Taylor. (Box 2)

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • English
  • French

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

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Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

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Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

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