Glass Flowers: The Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants

Yes, the models are made entirely of glass often reinforced internally with a wire support.

The models were created by father and son Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, nineteenth century glass artisans who perfected their family craft. Their lineage of jewelers and glassmakers trace as far back as the fifteenth century.

The parts were shaped after the glass was softened by heat. Some models were blown. Colored glass was used for many, others were "cold painted" with a thin wash of colored ground glass or metal oxide(s) and heated until the material fused to the model.

The models were made from 1887 through 1936.

The Blaschka's studio was located in Hosterwitz, near Dresden, Germany.

Harvard Professor George Lincoln Goodale,  founder of the Botanical Museum, wanted life-like representatives of the plant kingdom for teaching botany. At the time only crude papier-maché or wax models were available.

The life-size models include 847 species, with remarkably accurate anatomical sections and enlarged flower parts. Since the Glass Flowers are always in bloom, tropical and temperate species may be studied year-round.

Mrs. Elizabeth C. Ware and her daughter Mary Lee Ware financed the collection and presented it to Harvard University as a memorial to Dr. Charles Eliot Ware, Class of 1834.