Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder is considered one of the pioneers of the independent flower still life at the beginning of the 17th century. Little is known about his artistic beginnings. Born in Antwerp, he moved with his family to Middelburg at a young age. There he became one of the first specialists in the field of flower painting. The interest of numerous amateur botanists, who cultivated plants and rare species in their gardens, probably particularly encouraged the demand for flower still lifes as a separate genre in painting. From 1593 to 1613, Bosschaert was listed in the St. Lucas Guild, but he also worked as an art dealer. In 1615 Bosschaert first went to Bergen op Zoom, from 1616-1619 to Utrecht and from 1619-1621 to Breda. He died in The Hague in 1621 while delivering a flower still life to his commissioner Frederick van Schurman, the bottelier of Prince Maurits of Orange (1567–1625). The painting is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (dated 1621, oil on copper, 31.6 x 21.6 cm, inv. no. 1996.35.1). Our flower still life may also have been painted in Breda. These characteristics can also be found in the bouquet by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, which is dated 1618 (oil on copper, 55.5 x 39.5 cm, inv. no. KMSsp211). Here, too, sea snails are depicted, and their detailed reproduction makes it possible to identify them. In the 17th century, shells and sea snails came to Holland on the ships of the Dutch East and West India Companies and were sold to collectors for sometimes large sums of money. As 'Naturalia', curiosities and objects of scientific study, they found their way into both courtly and bourgeois art and collector's cabinets. Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) is exemplary in his Portrait of the Dutch merchant Jan Govertsz. van der Aar (c. 1544–1612) from 1603, in which he proudly presents his collection of sea shells to the viewer (oil on canvas, 107.5 x 83 cm, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, loan from P. and N. de Boer Foundation 1960, inv. no. 3450).