The Metropolitan Museum of Art Tulips Correspondence Cards

These pretty correspondence cards take after a watercolor by Jacob Marrel, a 17th-century German dealer of prints and tulips, as well as a still-life painter. During his career, he celebrated the range of tulip varietals in six illustrated books, three of which are still intact. Marrel's work coincided with "tulip mania," when the Dutch craze for the flower led to wild speculation, and eventually an economic crash in 1637. While the tulip only arrived in Europe from Turkey in the 1580s, it quickly became beloved as the "national flower" of Holland. Expertly engraved with gold foil, these charming cards add a bit of this rich history to your thank-you notes or friendly correspondence.