Description
During the late Victorian era, when orchidomania spread throughout Europe, Jean-Jules Linden and his son Lucien (1853-1940) were renowned commerical orchid growers in Belgium, then a center of orchid cultivation. Linden spent his twenties travelling throughout South and Central America in search of new species. Upon his return to Belgium he established his plant nursery where he and his son are credited with having collected specimens of over a thousand orchid species as well as breeding new hybrids. Each orchid in Iconographie des Orchidées is represented by a full-color chromolithograph followed by two or more pages of text by Linden, his son, or one of a number of contributors. The plates were printed by some of the best botanical lithographers of the period including Severeyns and de Pannemaeker, from illustrations by Alfred Goosens and other top botanical artists. The periodical was eventually completed in 17 volumes in 1903 with 813 plates.
Condition: Generally very good, the colors bright, with only minor toning, soiling, soft creases, occasional marginal foxing.
References:
Great Flower Books. 1990. p. 160.
Nissen BBI 2348.
Stafleu & Cowan TL2 4628.
Timby. The Orchid Observed. Stanford, 1982, number 27.
