Zona de identificação
Código de referência
Título
Data(s)
- 1769 - 1890 (Produção)
- 1769 - 2018 (Acumulação)
Nível de descrição
Coleção
Dimensão e suporte
Five boxes, including:
2 printed volumes
3 vellum bound notebooks
17 pieces of correspondence and handwritten notes
4 prints
2 photographs
Zona do contexto
Nome do produtor
História biográfica
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’.
Entidade detentora
História do arquivo
Blaikie's wife is known to have passed items to a friend, who in turn passed them to the Baynham family (source: 'Thomas Blaikie: The 'Capability' Brown of France 1751-1838' - Taylor, Patricia, 2001)
Fonte imediata de aquisição ou transferência
Cynthia Baynham, July 2018
Zona do conteúdo e estrutura
Âmbito e conteúdo
The collection dates between 1769 and c2003 and comprises:
- 3 notebooks including financial records, language studies and diaries;
- 17 pieces of correspondence and handwritten notes;
- a printed compendium of Swiss flora;
- a copy of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress;
- 4 prints of notable 18th century French figures; and
- two photographs of items which belonged to Blaikie's family.
Avaliação, selecção e eliminação
Ingressos adicionais
Sistema de arranjo
GB 235 BLT 1 – Notebooks
GB 235 BLT 2 – Correspondence
GB 235 BLT 3 – Text books
GB 235 BLT 4 – Images
Zona de condições de acesso e utilização
Condições de acesso
Collection is open to researchers by appointment, see (right click, open link in new tab:) https://www.rbge.org.uk/science-and-conservation/library-and-archives/visiting-the-library/
Condiçoes de reprodução
Permission for reproduction is required from RBGE.
Idioma do material
- inglês
- francês
- latim
Script do material
Notas ao idioma e script
Características físicas e requisitos técnicos
The material is very fragile, requiring careful handling and the use of gloves for photographs.
Instrumentos de descrição
Zona de documentação associada
Existência e localização de originais
Existência e localização de cópias
Unidades de descrição relacionadas
Zona das notas
Nota
The collection also includes two frames that previously held two of the images, but have been damaged in transit. There is also a University of West Virginia baseball cap included by the donor.
Identificador(es) alternativo(s)
Pontos de acesso
Pontos de acesso - Assuntos
Pontos de acesso - Locais
Pontos de acesso - Nomes
- Lee, James, 1754-1824, gardener (Assunto)
Pontos de acesso de género
Zona do controlo da descrição
Identificador da descrição
Identificador da instituição
Regras ou convenções utilizadas
Estatuto
Preliminar
Nível de detalhe
Parcial
Datas de criação, revisão, eliminação
May 2019
Línguas e escritas
- inglês
- francês