Chelidonium Japonicum, Yellow Flowered Poppy Chromolithograph, 1859

This is an original antique botanical print, a chromolithograph printed in color, lettered "CHELIDONIUM JAPONICUM Thunb." A leafy stem carries two open cup shaped flowers in bright yellow, one seen from the side, together with several buds on long stalks. The leaves are divided into broad, toothed and deeply wrinkled leaflets in yellow green. Details at the foot show the pistil at the left and the stamens and the flower center with its ring of stamens at the right.

The name is lettered in capitals with the authority "Thunb." (Thunberg). At lower left the artist's line reads "Q. M. R. Ver Huell. ad. viv. del." (drawn from life by Q. M. R. Ver Huell), and at lower right "Imp. Lith. de L. Stroobant à Gand." (printed at the lithographic press of L. Stroobant in Ghent). No plate number is printed on this plate. The plant is now known as Hylomecon japonica.

The plate comes from the second volume of the Annales d'horticulture et de botanique, ou Flore des jardins du royaume des Pays-Bas, published at Leiden by A. W. Sythoff in 1859 for the Société royale d'horticulture des Pays-Bas under the patronage of King William III. The journal recorded cultivated and ornamental plants grown in the Netherlands and introduced from the Dutch possessions in the East Indies, from America and from Japan. Q. M. R. Ver Huell (1787 to 1860), the Dutch naval officer and artist, drew a number of the plates for the work. L. Stroobant was a lithographer working in Ghent (Gand in French).

The strong color and clear drawing make it a good choice for a study, a garden room or a hallway, framed singly or in a group of plates from the same work.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.