Stelzner's Laelia Orchid: Hand-Colored Lithograph by Louis van Houtte, 1855
€ 240
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1855
Sheet size
33 × 24.5 cm (13.0 × 9.6 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-13748-61
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
The condition of this genuine antique is good, given age, with the central fold line being a characteristic of its original publication. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling.
About this sheet
Stelzner's laelia, an orchid from Brazil, in a hand-colored lithograph from Louis Van Houtte's Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe, 1855. The plate is lettered "Laelia Stelzneriana Rchb. Fil." with "Brésil" and "Serre chaude" (the warm greenhouse) beneath, and the Van Houtte imprint appears in tiny type at the lower left.
The plant is drawn whole, growing from a small tuft of moss at the foot of the sheet. Tall, slender pseudobulbs, striped and papery with age, rise in several stems, each topped by a broad, dark green leathery leaf that arches across the upper part of the page. Two large flowers are shown, one in the foreground and one partly hidden behind it. The petals and sepals are long and white, with a gently waved edge, and the broad lip is a rich magenta-purple fringed with white, with a pale greenish yellow throat.
The color is laid on in fine graded washes, and the leaves are modeled in light and shadow against the plain paper. The sheet carries a central vertical fold from its original binding.
Laelia was a favorite genus among orchid growers of the 1850s, when Brazilian species were being sent to Ghent and other European nurseries in numbers, and the "serre chaude" note records the heated glasshouse the plant needed.
