bee-keeping chart
Date: 1856-1865
Inventory Number: 1998-1-1448
Classification: Chart
Subject:
Maker: Maison Basset (fl. 1830 - 1860)
Author: Henri Hamet (mid-19th Century)
Maker: Fosset (19th Century ?)
Cultural Region:
Place of Origin:
Dimensions:
0.1 x 71.5 x 55 cm (1/16 x 28 1/8 x 21 5/8 in.)
Material:
DescriptionAn educational chart on bee-keeping, authored by Henri Hamet. Hamet founded a beekeeping school at the Jardin de Luxembourg, Paris, in 1856, and published instructional manuals about the best ways to keep honeybees.
This colorful chart is full of graphic visual scenes and somewhat anthropomorphic textual descriptions about various bee-related topics: types of bees and gender differences; bee anatomy and physiology, along with an illustrated dissection of a bee; a brief natural history of the bee; how bees construct their hives as miniature architects of the animal kingdom; the lifecycle of bees, beginning with bee pregnancy and the laying of eggs in the cells of a hive; a scene of two bees fighting to the death to defend their hive (along with a description of this practice); bee illnesses and enemies (both climactic enemies and animal enemies); favorable places for bees; how to select and purchase the best bee-keeping hives and devices, as well as methods of making and gathering honey and beeswax.
In this chart, there are many examples of the honey making process, with a man dressed in a bee-keeping outfit to demonstrate this practice, alongside numerous representations of male and female bees in (or alongside) their domestic environments.
The honeybee is appreciated not only for its products, which were destined for human consumption, but also for the almost humanized way in which it lived its life, since the beehive represented the social virtues of labor in an ideal society, and honey and wax have provided the basis for countless positive metaphors of sweetness and productivity.
Many of the illustrations and ideas in this chart can also be found in Hamet's 1859 book, Cours pratique d'apiculture, albeit in a very different format, usually printed as individual features on single pages to illustrate ideas found in the text rather than as condensed information on a single chart that condenses information and emphasizes the image-text relationship to a greater extent.
This colorful chart is full of graphic visual scenes and somewhat anthropomorphic textual descriptions about various bee-related topics: types of bees and gender differences; bee anatomy and physiology, along with an illustrated dissection of a bee; a brief natural history of the bee; how bees construct their hives as miniature architects of the animal kingdom; the lifecycle of bees, beginning with bee pregnancy and the laying of eggs in the cells of a hive; a scene of two bees fighting to the death to defend their hive (along with a description of this practice); bee illnesses and enemies (both climactic enemies and animal enemies); favorable places for bees; how to select and purchase the best bee-keeping hives and devices, as well as methods of making and gathering honey and beeswax.
In this chart, there are many examples of the honey making process, with a man dressed in a bee-keeping outfit to demonstrate this practice, alongside numerous representations of male and female bees in (or alongside) their domestic environments.
The honeybee is appreciated not only for its products, which were destined for human consumption, but also for the almost humanized way in which it lived its life, since the beehive represented the social virtues of labor in an ideal society, and honey and wax have provided the basis for countless positive metaphors of sweetness and productivity.
Many of the illustrations and ideas in this chart can also be found in Hamet's 1859 book, Cours pratique d'apiculture, albeit in a very different format, usually printed as individual features on single pages to illustrate ideas found in the text rather than as condensed information on a single chart that condenses information and emphasizes the image-text relationship to a greater extent.
Signedat the top of the print: TABLEAU D'APICULTURE (MOUCHES A MIEL) / par Henri Hamet, apiphile, continuateut du cours public d'apiculture créé par Lombard / PARIS, MAISON BASSET, RUE SE SEINE, 33.
printed on the bottom of the chart: Imp.ie de Fosset rue de Faub.g. St. Jacques, 1g, Paris.
printed on the bottom of the chart: Imp.ie de Fosset rue de Faub.g. St. Jacques, 1g, Paris.
Primary SourcesHenri Hamet, Cours pratique d'apiculture (culture des abeilles) (Paris, 1859).
Digitized by google books: available here.
Digitized by google books: available here.