145 yr old Wax Models of Apples and Pears
Whilst searching for sources of information on pear ‘Beurré Sterckmans’ the other day – which we were growing in the Plot #79 orchard before the tree’s rootstock died last winter – I stumbled across the Museums Victoria Whatmough Collection.
It seems that in 1875 a fruit grower by the name of Robert Whatmough from Greensborough in Melbourne, presented the museum with a number of apples, pears and crab apples. Thomas McMillan then made wax models of the fruit, and those models are still in the museum’s archives, along with dozens more made by Mr McMillan and other wax artists between the 1870s and late 1940s.
As you’d expect from 140ish year old wax models some of them are a little cracked around the glaze, but the majority are still mostly intact and still rather lovely objects. And of course the full listing provides a snapshot of popular Australian fruit cultivars of the day.
Here are a few images from the Whatmough Collection (which Museums Victoria have released under a CC Attribution 4.0 license). To see more of the wax models in the overall Museums Victoria Wax Fruit Collection, visit collections.museumsvictoria.com.au.
Lancashire Lass Ginston’s Nonpareil Buerre Sterckmans Buerre Clairgeau Bitter Sweet No. 3 Royal Russet
Hi Robert Whatmaugh was my great great grandfather. I only know a little about him through a relative compiling the family tree. His daughter Jesse married a Pill my maiden name. I live in Hereford England which is ironically a huge cider apple orchard growing area and I’m a professional gardener. I would love to be able to grow some of his fruit. Do you have any idea where I could source seed? My daughter is currently visiting Melbourne and would be able to potentially get some for me.
Hi Christine – Lovely to virtually meet you. I’m afraid sourcing fruit wouldn’t really work. Cuttings from any of Robert Whatmough’s trees that still survive would have to be grafted to a suitable rootstock in order to preserve the same variety – because seeds from apples never come true to type – but I don’t think your daughter would be able to get a grafted tree in her suitcase. And there would probably be all sorts of import license hoops to jump through to get anything from Australia to the UK.
Your best bet might be to see if you can find out which varieties Robert was growing and then see if any of them are available in the UK. A lot of British varieties went over to Australia back in the day, so there might be more crossover than you’d think.
Good luck!