Tulip Mania: Flower Fever in Seventeenth-Century Holland
Tulip Mania: Flower Fever in Seventeenth Century Holland displays 65 watercolors depicting a variety of the tulips available during the 17th century mercantile craze for tulips in Holland known as "Tulipomanina." The insatiable demand for the beautiful and rare bulbs reached its height in 1636, when prices soared and flower merchants enjoyed great wealth. The selection of watercolors are from an album used by a wealthy Dutch tulip merchant and grower to show his clients the different varieties of tulips and include the name of each variety, often the name of the grower himself or an affluent client, as well as the price and the weight for each bulb.