“Semper Augustus” Tulip

Today’s post is about a single flower, a kind that no longer exists. But at one point, the “Semper Augustus” tulip swayed stock markets, comprised the fortunes of rich men, and exemplified the highest expression of commodified beauty.

From 1600 to about 1720, the Dutch Republic commanded the highest per capita income in the world, garnered with its sophisticated overseas trading empire. With so many wealthy people in the Netherlands, the elites sought ways of distinguishing their specialness from the rabble, and tulips became the best means to do it. Ephemeral, impractical, and extremely rare, in the late 1500s and the first decades of the 1600s, people in Holland prized tulips at ungodly amounts of money — like ten times the amount one middling family could make in a year.

And the king of the tulips was the Semper Augustus. With “blood-like flares vividly streaked on white ground,” the Semper Augustus was almost impossible to get ahold of. The painting shown here by Hans Bolloniger (1639) showcases the beauty of the flower. And cultivators from the time had no idea how to produce it, because they didn’t know what caused the “broken” color pattern. The bulbs didn’t seem reproducible, and therefore they were esteemed all the higher.

Turns out, the reason for the variegated patterning was bad news for the Semper Augustus– it was caused by a virus (TBV- the “Tulip-Breaking Virus”), one that weakened the plant– today, those in the tulip business intentionally eliminate infected plants.

Much like the weak but beautiful Semper Augustus bulbs, the economic flowering of the Dutch tulip market was doomed to fade. In February of 1637, the market suddenly collapsed, dragging the fortunes of those who had gambled on it behind them.