Stelzner's Laelia Orchid: Hand-Colored Lithograph by Louis van Houtte, 1855

1855 · Birds, Plants & Natural History

Stelzner's Laelia Orchid: Hand-Colored Lithograph by Louis van Houtte, 1855

Name: Stelzner's Laelia Orchid: Hand-Colored Lithograph by Louis van Houtte, 1855
Brand: American Maps and Prints
SKU: BG-13748-61
Price: 270 USD
Availability: InStock

$270

€240 · dollar price at today's exchange rate

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Shipping to the United States: $51 standard, $73 express, insured and tracked.

Date: 1855
Kind: Birds, Plants & Natural History
Size: 33 × 24.5 cm (13 × 9.6 in)
Condition: Good. 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.
Period: Westward Expansion & Civil War
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.

Guaranteed original. This is an original of the period stated, not a later reproduction or print-on-demand copy. If it is ever shown to be otherwise, we refund you in full.

Shipping to the United States. Sent from our gallery in Langweer, the Netherlands, flat between boards or rolled in a tube, and fully insured. Delivery and import charges.

About this piece

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.

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