White Tree Peony Princesse Marie des Pays Bas, Paeonia Moutan, 1858

This is an original antique botanical print, a chromolithograph printed in color on a buff tint ground, lettered "PAEONIA MOÙTAN Sims. Princesse Marie des Pays Bas Sieb & de Vriese." It shows a single very large double flower of the tree peony variety Princesse Marie des Pays Bas, its many ranks of frilled white petals touched with the faintest pink at the heart around a ring of yellow stamens. A few dark green leaves and two curving stems frame the flower against the printed buff ground, which stops short of the sheet edges.

The name is lettered in capitals with the authority Sims for the species, and the variety name with the authority "Sieb & de Vriese" (Siebold and de Vriese). At lower left the faint artist's line reads "Q. M. R. Ver Hùell, ad. nat. del. 1856." (drawn from nature by Q. M. R. Ver Huell, 1856), and at lower right "L. Stroobant Sc. & Lith. à Gand." (engraved and lithographed by L. Stroobant in Ghent). No plate number is printed on this plate.

The plate comes from the first 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 1858 for the Société royale d'horticulture des Pays-Bas under the patronage of King William III. The title page of this volume names Ph. Fr. de Siebold and W. H. de Vriese as its editors. The work 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 first volume. 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.