Chaumontel Butter Pear - Botanical poster 50x70cm

Pyrus Caumontel, Beurré de Chaumontel Pear

Born around 1690 from a chance pip in Chaumontel, near Luzarches, this pear is one of the rare fruit varieties whose exact origin has been preserved. "Bezy" is a patois 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 claims to have eaten it as early as Pentecost, a fact now gone, indicating a ripening period that was then much later than today.

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

Its skin, initially grayish-green, marbled with gray and dotted with reddish-brown spots, turns yellow and takes on a bright red hue in the sun. Its semi-buttery flesh, very melting in rich, light soils, delivers a sweet, tangy, delicious juice, although sometimes slightly stony in less favorable terrain.

Its pips often abort, leaving only four locules. Grafted on a seedling or quince rootstock, of medium vigor and fertile, this pear tree gains in size and color when espaliered against a wall. The ripeness of this exceptional fruit, which varies from year to year, usually extends until the end of February, sometimes only until January.

This plate is taken from Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin's Traité des Arbres Fruitiers (Treatise on Fruit Trees), a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference for 19th-century naturalist illustration.

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

• Each poster is printed using 12-color giclée printing, the benchmark for art workshops for the reproduction of fine tones, subtle gradients, and the most delicate botanical details.
• 200 gsm paper, soft matte finish, 0.26 mm thickness: a rendering close to the original engraving, clear, glare-free, designed for hanging.
• Printed on FSC certified paper, individually printed to order.
• Shipped in a rigid protective tube.