L. Linden, J. Linden, and others | Lindenia: Iconographie des Orchidees. Ghent, 1885-1903, 17 volumes

L. Linden, J. Linden and E. Rodigas

Lindenia: Iconographie des Orchidees. Ghent: F. Meyer-van Loo, 1885-1903

17 volumes, 4to (345 x 267mm.), 798 chromolithographed plates, and one plain plate, by G. Severeyns and P. de Pannemaeker, mostly after A. Goosens, contemporary half cloth, marbled boards (not uniform), spines gilt, sprinkled edges, blue endpapers, volume 15 with 'L'horticulture Internationale' pamphlet loosely inserted, minor foxing, extremities very slightly rubbed

A FINE SET of one of the rarest works on Orchids. As usual the set does not include the very scarce last 4 parts of volume 17 (with 14 plates), as so few copies of the last 4 parts were issued. The plates are numbered 1-794 and 796-800. Plate 525 is uncoloured (as with all copies) and plate 795 was never published. The plates were lithographed by the best Belgian lithographers of the period.

Towards the end of the nineteenth-century Belgium became one of the most important trading centres for tropical and subtropical orchids. After much travelling, especially to South America, Jean Linden established himself as a nurseryman at Ghent but eventually returned to Brussels, where he founded with his son Lucien the establishment known as 'Horticulture Internationale'. They imported more than 1100 different species into Belgium. "In this nursery, which became a model for the profession, Linden's knowledge of plants and localities in which they grew naturally proved invaluable" (Reinikka, p. 206).

LITERATURE:

Nissen BBI 2348; Reinikka, p. 206; Stafleu TL2 4628