Love-Apple

Elizabeth Blachrie Blackwell (1707-1758) was a Scottish botanical illustrator and the author of A Curious Herbal, published in 1737 and 1739. Blackwell was the first woman to have singularly published an herbal, an encyclopedia detailing the medicinal properties of plants.

This illustration of the love-apple is one of 500 botanical species Blackwell painted from living specimens at the Chelsea Physic Garden, a garden developed to educate apothecaries on plant identification. Between 1737 and 1739, Blackwell published weekly four plates that she had drawn, engraved, and hand-coloured herself. Blackwell also engraved the text of the work, an unusual practice in botanical manuscripts. Traditionally the production of such an herbal would have employed three separate artists, but Blackwell completed all three tasks herself. The College of Physicians, when presented with Blackwell’s creation, issued a glowing endorsement. Previous herbals sorely lacked the comprehensiveness of Blackwell’s atlas of medicinal plants, and Blackwell enjoyed financial success from her work. She used the proceeds from her herbal to liberate her husband from debtor’s prison.

The “Love-Apple,”or tomato, is native to Central and South America, and was named “tomatl” by the Aztecs. The fruit was not introduced to Britain until the late 1500s. Related to tobacco and the deadly nightshade, the tomato was first believed by Europeans to be poisonous. By the nineteenth century, however, the tomato had grown in popularity as an edible fruit. Blackwell writes of the love-apple: “…the Juice is commended in hot Defluctions… In Italy they eat them with Oil and Vinegar as we do Cucumbers.”