Many of the classic works on old fruit varieties are very expensive collector’s items. The Herefordshire Pomona of 1877-85 illustrated with water colour plates and descriptions of the apples and pears by the redoubtable Dr Robert Hogg, for instance, sells for thousands of pounds. The CD of its fruits produced by the Marcher Apple Network (MAN) a few years ago was therefore extremely useful to all apple and pear enthusiasts. This was part of MAN’s ‘Pomona Project’ which aims to make available as many of the reference works as possible relating to the identification of apples and pears. Now they are issuing a second CD entitled ‘Vintage Fruits’. This is a compilation of descriptions and colour plates from the classic sources of information on cider apples and perry pears.
‘Vintage Fruits’ has been put together by Richard Wheeler and rather than merely concentrating on one of the old fruit books, he has drawn his material from five rare or inaccessible publications – Pomona Herefordiensis (1811) by Thomas Andrew Knight, illustrated with water colour plates; The Apple and Pear as Vintage Fruits (1886) by Robert Hogg and Henry Graves Bull, illustrated with line drawings; Perry Pears (1963) edited by L.C. Luckwill and A. Pollard, illustrated with colour photographs; ‘Cider Apples and their Characters’, papers by Ray Williams, published in the annual reports of Long Ashton Research Station, illustrated with line drawings; Bulmer’s Pomona, 1987, illustrated with water colour plates.
Joan Morgan
The CD will be available in May 2007. To reserve a copy contact: The Membership Secretary, Brook House, Hopesay, Craven Arms, Shropshire SY7 8HD. The cost will be £16 per copy including post and packing in the UK.
This sounds really interesting. Many thanks for the review, I will try to get hold of it. I’ll let you know what I think when I’ve seen it.
I remember talking to these guys a couple of years ago when they were putting it all together, must get a copy, thanks for reminding me.
The’ Vintage Fruit’ CD, with 290 separate descriptions of cider apples and 107 descriptions of perry pears, is now available for purchase. An order form (including overseas postage rates) can be downloaded from http://www.marcherapple.net/vfruit.htm
or send your cheque, payable to Marcher Apple Network, to the address given above. The ‘Herefordshire Pomona’ CD, with descriptions of 432 ‘esteemed’ varieties of apples, pears, cider apples and perry pears illustrated on 77 colour plates, is also still available.