Pineapple mania
The difficulty of growing pineapples in colder climates contributed to their scarcity and exorbitant cost, establishing them as symbols of great wealth, power, and status.
He presented a single surviving specimen of pineapple, along with other unique species he discovered, to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain.
Italian historian Peter Martyr d'Anghiera (1457–1526) recorded the event in his work De Orbe Novo (1516), famously noting that the King "prefers" the pineapple "to all others", giving it the official approval of the monarchy and launching the centuries-long obsession with the fruit.
It is believed with certainty that the court of Charles II of England (1630–1685) first served and ate a pineapple during a dinner reception for the French ambassador in 1668, and this was attested to in some detail by diarist and gardener John Evelyn (1620–1706).
[4] The technology, methods, and techniques needed for tropical pineapple cultivation in a cold climate like Europe depended on separate innovations in what over time later contributed to the development of the modern conservatory: improvements in glass pane production to capture more light, temperature regulation with the use of early alcohol thermometers, the development of pineapple pits (also known as pineries), hothouses with stoves, and the use of tanner's bark to heat the bottom of the plants.
Many of these developments are attributed to various people, although Dutch cloth merchant Pieter de la Court van der Voort (1664-1739), was one of the first to experiment with them in whole or in part in his garden at Allmansgeest (later renamed Berbice) in South Holland.
Dutch botanist and physician Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) was a friend and neighbor of De la Court, and it is thought that their shared interest in experimental glasshouses, stove design and temperature control directly influenced each other.
Although De la Court widely shared his ideas with visitors and those in his close network, they would remain private until he finally published them in Bijzondere aenmerkingen, or Special Remarks (1737), two years before his death.
English gardener and founding Fellow of the Royal Society John Evelyn (1620–1706) helped contribute to the development of greenhouse heating technology with a unique design in 1664.
Block's status as an amateur and private individual gave her an advantage, writes food historian Garritt van Dyk, as "royal gardeners and professional botanists were unable to achieve" her breakthrough.
This advantage, writes van Dyk, "allowed for greater freedom in methodology and experimentation outside the boundaries of accepted academic protocols and the exigencies of commercial viability".
[25] Furniture design in the newly formed United States began to branch off from its European progenitors in the 1820s, but continued to incorporate carved pineapple ornamental motifs in the neoclassical style.
