Bezi de Chaumontel Pear

Pyrus Caumontel, Beurré de Chaumontel Pear

Born around 1690 from a chance seed in Chaumontel, near Luzarches, this pear is one of the rare fruit varieties whose exact origin has reached us. "Bezy" is a local dialect word for pear.

Duhamel reported in 1782 that the original pear tree still existed, a vigorous centenarian with a hollow trunk nearly four meters high. Merlet claimed to have eaten it as early as Pentecost, a phenomenon that has since disappeared, testifying to a ripening period that was then much later than today.

The Beurré de Chaumontel Pear is recognized by its elongated and plump silhouette, obtuse at both ends, eight to ten centimeters high, sometimes up to thirteen for the most beautiful specimens weighing nearly eight hundred grams.

Its skin, initially grayish-green, marbled with gray and dotted with reddish spots, turns yellow and is tinged with bright red in the sun. Its semi-buttery flesh, very melting in rich and light soils, yields a sweet, distinct, delicious water, although sometimes slightly gritty in less favorable terrain.

Its seeds often abort, leaving only four locules. Grafted on franc or quince rootstock, of medium vigor and fertile, this pear tree gains in size and coloration when espaliered against a wall. The maturity of this exceptional fruit, variable depending on the year, usually extends until the end of February, sometimes only until January.

This plate is taken from the Traité des Arbres Fruitiers by Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin, a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalist illustration.

It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensibility, characteristic of the great plates of the golden age of illustrated botany.