Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
N.d.
Primary Source Reference:
ReP to Charles Willson Peale and RuP, 3 Apr 1810, The Port Folio, 4, no. 3 (Sep 1810): 275-279 (Selected Papers, 3: 33-40)
Additional Source Text:
"The abbé [Haüy] is still adding to the collection [of minerals] for you. . . . To the demonstrations in wood of crystals, the abbé will add dissected crystals by himself."
Notes:
René-Just Haüy (1743-1822), the French priest and mineralogist who provided so many minerals for the Peale Museum, created comprehensive collections containing hundreds of pearwood models of crystals for education and demonstrations. Rembrandt Peale, in Paris, commisioned for $180 (likely from Haüy) a set of such models. It is not known if the models were ever received by the Peale Museum. Pictured here is one of the 597 Haüy models that Martinus van Marum purchased for Teylers Museum, Haarlem (the Netherlands) between 1802 and 1804. Selected Papers, 3: 34, 47
