Close-ups
Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the print could look; the description says what is included.
Golden Fleece: Old Vibrant Botanical Illustration from Van Houtte's Collection
£120 ($155, €140)
Period original, not a reproduction.
Shipped from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked, worldwide. Returns accepted within 14 days.
- Date
- Not stated
- Size
- 9.8 × 6.4 in (25 × 16.3 cm)
- Condition
- Very good, given age. General age-related toning and/or occasional minor defects from handling. Colors are vivid. Please study scan carefully.
- Artist or book
- Louis van Houtte
- Section
- Botanical
- Reference
- f_41438482
- Colour
- Hand coloured
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.
Stifftia chrysantha, a Brazilian flowering shrub, in an original color lithograph from Louis Van Houtte's Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe. The plate title "Stifftia chrysantha Mikan." is lettered beneath the image, with the imprint line of the Van Houtte establishment ("lith. & pub. au Hort. Van Houtte") and the plate number "IV-391" in the lower right corner.
A single leafy branch rises from the foot of the sheet. Broad, glossy green leaves with prominent veining alternate up the stem, and at the top a spiky bloom opens like a brush: a fringe of fine orange-red and yellow filaments radiating from a cream and pale yellow tube. Beside it, a second flower is still closed, a slender bud tinged with yellow and rose, and a cluster of green bracts sits at the base of both. The plant is drawn life size against the plain paper, with the colors lithographed in strong, clean tones.
Stifftia chrysantha, sometimes called golden fleece or saffron brush, comes from the Atlantic forests of Brazil. Van Houtte's Flore des Serres, issued from his nursery at Ghent, illustrated new and notable plants then entering European glasshouses and gardens.
