Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) and Hibiscus
A watercolour drawing from the album PD.132-1973. This is a Chinese export watercolour depicting shell ginger and hibiscus. The composition shows shell ginger with its characteristic drooping racemes of pink and white shell-like flowers with yellow fringed lips, accompanied by large lance-shaped leaves with parallel venation. On the right, orange hibiscus blooms display the typical five-petaled form with prominent stamens, supported by palmate leaves. The painting demonstrates the fine brushwork characteristic of Chinese export art from the late 18th or early 19th century, combining traditional Chinese flower-and-bird painting style and Western botanical illustration.
Height: 377 mm
Width: 298 mm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1973) by Fairhaven, Henry Rogers Broughton
Chinese
Chinese export art
Chinese export watercolour
Support composed of paper
Watercolour : Watercolour with white on thin paper, tipped in on the cream coloured album sheet
Accession number: PD.132-1973.12
Primary reference Number: 32396
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Paintings, Drawings and Prints
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) and Hibiscus" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/32396 Accessed: 2025-12-08 19:45:34
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/32396
|title=Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) and Hibiscus
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-08 19:45:34|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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