The Always Elevated,’ that is what the name of this tulip means. The Latin words were part of the title of the German Emperor, the European ruler who was the highest-ranking in the 17th century. The breeder of this variant apparently found that his tulip surpassed all other tulips, and many contemporaries agreed with him.
Semper Augustus is first mentioned in 1623 and was then in the hands of a single owner. Other tulip enthusiasts also found the tulip beautiful, but the owner did not want to sell anything. During the tulip fever, only two people had bulbs of Semper Augustus. A single bulb could have earned at least 6000 guilders in 1637 – if the owners had wanted to sell.
In 1739, the Semper Augustus still existed, but it had become a common tulip, no longer worth more than 1 guilder per bulb.
Van Baaren, M.C. (2020). Semper Augustus, (25×35 cm). Museum de Zwarte Tulp, Lisse.
Text: Henk Looijesteijn, Researcher Social History bij IISG Amsterdam
Ninetynine Tulips 