Double Flowering Peach Japonica Stellata, Amygdalus Persica, 1859

This is an original antique botanical print, a chromolithograph printed in color, lettered "AMYGDALUS PERSICA L. Var. JAPONICA, STELLATA." A single flowering shoot of peach runs up the sheet, carrying double, star shaped flowers with narrow petals: most in soft pink with deeper pink veins and yellow anthers, and a group at the middle of the stem in white. Narrow, pointed leaves in fresh green spring from the stem, with a larger spray of leaves to the right.

The name is lettered in capitals with the authority "L." (Linnaeus) and the variety japonica stellata, the star flowered Japanese form. At lower left the artist's line reads "J. Gaÿkema, ad. viv." (drawn from life by J. Gaÿkema), 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 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. 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.