Verscahffelt’s Nouvelle Iconographie des Camellias – Volume with 48 Originally Hand-colored Chromolithographs

This volume with 48 plates is Nouvelle Iconographie des Camellias from Alexandre and Ambroise Verschaffelt. It was published in 1857 by Verschafflet in Gand (Ghent, Belgium). The chromolithographs feature original hand-coloring and were finished with gum arabic. The were after illustrations by Bernard Leon and L. Stroobant and son. The volume is bound in contemporary purple cloth, spine lettered in gilt.

The Verschaffelts held the established Verschaffelt Family nursery and were well-known for their horticultural knowledge. “The work is one of the rarest and greatest of the nineteenth-century camellia iconographies. The Verschaffelts were a family of nurserymen specializing in camellias and published this book really as a catalogue of newly introduced species and recently developed hybrids which were available from their nurseries.” (De Belder)