Note: All items pictured on this website are in the personal collection of Frank W. Reiser. Please contact if you wish to display parts of the collection at your institution or if you are seeking additional information about the topic.

Collection de 60 Sections Transversales de Bois des Essences Forestières les plus Importantes à l’usage des Élèves de l’École Impériale Forestière de Nancy. Hermann von Nördlinger and A. Auguste Mathieu, 1855

(Collection of 60 Cross-Sections of Wood from Important European Forest Species for students at the Imperial Forestry School in Nancy, France)

Hermann von Nördlinger (1818–1891) published 60 Sections Transversales in 1855, three years after his widely acclaimed Querschnitte von Hundert Holzarten. The book’s full title assigns the work to the Imperial Forestry School in Nancy, France. Nördlinger included the French botanist A. Auguste Mathieu (1814–1890) as coauthor. Mathieu, a professor at the forestry school, worked with Nördlinger during Nördlinger’s two-year tenure in Nancy early in both men’s careers. They became lifelong friends and exchanged correspondence until Mathieu’s death.

Nördlinger and Mathieu Create a Rare Collection of Tree Species

When 60 Sections Transversales was published, the only comparable work was Nördlinger’s larger German-language Querschnitte von Hundert Holzarten. A casual inspection suggests that the French book is an abridged issue of the larger work. That would not explain the second author. Closer comparison shows that 60 Sections Transversales holds only thirty species also found in the first German volume. Of the remaining thirty sections, twenty species did not appear in Nördlinger’s German series until Volume II (1858). The last ten sections did not appear until Volume III (1861). These changes were customizations for the French forestry school. Nördlinger was sole author of all fourteen volumes of Querschnitte and of abridged English and Russian issues. The French edition is the exception that lists Mathieu as coauthor.

A. Auguste Mathieu (1814–1890)

Mathieu, professor at the École Forestière in Nancy, apparently collaborated with Nördlinger to fit 60 Sections Transversales to the school’s coursework. Mathieu also wrote the dendrology text used there, Flore Forestière, arranged by species and describing the physical attributes of each tree. Each account includes a paragraph on the wood section—details that could be observed in Nördlinger’s slices. Nördlinger is not named in that textbook, nor is 60 Sections Transversales.

Mathieu began at the École Forestière teaching natural history, starting with botany for second-division students. In October 1838, under director Parade, he was appointed permanent professor of natural history, a post he held for 42 years. He raised the academic standing of natural history at the school beyond that of his predecessors.

In 1863 he became assistant director. The school later commissioned a marble bust, displayed with the natural history collection he curated.

In 1872 a student fundraising effort, including international contributors from England, Belgium, and Germany, established the Mathieu Prize. Donors received a miniature bust. After retiring in 1880, Mathieu published the fourth edition of Flore Forestière and reissued his Atlas of Forest Entomology, plus works on mineralogy and forest-product chemistry.

His later colleague Marie Charles Eugène Guyot (1845–1930), deputy director from 1893, noted Nördlinger’s “Coupes de Bois” in the school collection in his history of the institution, but did not mention Mathieu’s role in the 1855 work.

Physical Description of 60 Sections Transversales

The volume measures 4.75 inches deep, 7 inches high, and 1.25 inches thick—matching Querschnitte von Hundert Holzarten except for greater thickness. Each specimen is mounted in a fold of unbound, semi-gloss white paper measuring 5 × 8 inches. An oval cut-out lets the wood slice be examined without unfolding the sheet. Besides the sixty sections, the set includes a title page, an introductory note, and an index.

The collection is housed in a cardboard box made to resemble a book. The “spine” side is red leather with a gold-leaf title; the other three edges have paper that imitates nineteenth-century decorated book edges. Top and back covers are black faux leather. The box slides into a black cardboard sleeve that keeps the unbound pages from spilling when stored upright.

The outer edge of the box is clad in red leather simulating a text spine, with an embossed gold pattern and the title “60 Sections Transversales De Bois.” Opening the cover shows the title page and a black silk ribbon. Lifting the ribbon gives access to the wood-section pages. Each page has an oval viewing port. When not in use, the box slides back into the sleeve.

The wood samples are about three-thousandths of an inch (76 microns) thick. The folded paper sheets are about 152 microns thick. Modern inkjet paper is typically about 216 microns.

A Xylotheque Needing of Conservation

According to WorldCat, only seventeen copies of Nördlinger’s 60 Sections Transversales are recorded in institutional holdings. In the United States, one copy is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Private copies exist, but the number is unknown. Because the content is actual wood shavings, the work sits between a book and a botanical collection more often kept in a herbarium.

Nördlinger’s French Connection

Between 1838 and 1840 Nördlinger studied at the University of Tübingen and distinguished himself in the state forestry examination. Cunin-Gridaine, French Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, appointed him professor of forestry at the École Régionale d’Agriculture de Grand-Jouan in Brittany. To prepare, he spent the winter of 1842–1843 at the Nancy forestry school, learning French administrative practice and forestry terminology. There he studied botany and forestry and formed a lasting friendship with Antoine Auguste Mathieu. Their correspondence continued until Mathieu’s death in 1890.

While at Nancy, Nördlinger made field trips to Brittany and the region of Brest to study timber. He published “Mémoire sur les essences forestières de la Bretagne” (1845) and “Essai sur les formations géologiques de Grand-Jouan” (1847). He resigned from Grand-Jouan when offered a forestry professorship at the Institute Hohenheim, beginning 21 May 1845. In December 1851 the University of Tübingen awarded him an honorary doctorate in natural sciences.

By 1855 he was first professor of forestry at Hohenheim and began publishing on the comparative technical properties and microstructures of woods—work he continued until retiring in 1891. On retirement he received the Knight’s Cross First Class of the Order of Frederick and the Crown of the Order of the Crown of Württemberg.

Flore Forestière described numerous tree species. It first appeared in 1858 and was revised through Mathieu’s later years. In October 1838, under Parade, Mathieu became permanent professor of natural history and held that chair for 42 years.

The brown tone of many old photographs comes from sepia toning, used with albumen prints from about 1850. Sepia toning converts image silver to a more stable compound and gives the brown hue. Albumen prints were made by coating paper with albumen (filtered egg white) and silver salts; when dry they have a natural gloss that can be difficult to scan. The paper is thin and smooth, so prints were usually mounted on card. A print of the forestry school found in L’Enseignement Forestier en France still shows curl after more than a century between book pages. The print itself carries no further caption.

The first specimen page carries Nördlinger’s stamp stating that the wood sections received commendations at two world exhibitions in London. Only that top page is stamped. Pages are numbered in pencil, probably by an earlier owner; the numbers do not match the table of contents. An oval sticker at the upper left of each page identifies the specimen.

Abies excelsa, Norway spruce, was first treated by Linnaeus as Pinus abies. Current taxonomy places the tree as Picea abies.

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