Hand Colored Orchid Print, Laelia Cattleyoides, d'Orbigny, circa 1849

About this sheet

An original antique hand colored orchid plate showing two pseudobulbs rising from a length of rough bark, each carrying a pair of strap shaped leaves and a spray of soft pink and white flowers with a frilled lip. Three small dissections of the pollinia and the column are set around the plant. The running head reads Botanique at the center and MONOCOTYLEDONES. PL. 18 at the right; the caption beneath is lettered ORCHIDEES. Lelia faux Cattleya. (Lelia Cattleioides. A. Rich.) at half natural size, with the printer's line Folliau. imp.

The plate comes from the atlas volumes of the Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle edited by Charles Dessalines d'Orbigny and published in Paris through the 1840s, a work of thirteen text volumes and three volumes of hand colored plates. The botanical plates are largely after Edouard Maubert, one of the best French flower draughtsmen of the period, and were engraved on steel or copper and then colored by hand in the Paris workshops.

Orchids are the single strongest subject in the botanical print market and have been since the nineteenth century, when orchid collecting became a mania among wealthy Europeans. The soft pink against the cream paper is easy to live with. This is a small sheet, so it is best framed with a generous mount and hung in a bathroom, a bedroom or a group of three or four.

Even age toning. Slight wear at the bottom left corner.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.