Louis Van Houtte's "Flore des Serres et des Jardins de L'Europe" or "The Gardens of Europe" gorgeous botanical prints from 1845-1875

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Flore des Serres et des Jardins de L'Europe
Louis van Houtte and Charles Lemaire, editors
Ghent, Belgium (1845-1883)

Gorgeous original 140-year-old multi-stone color lithographs with some handcoloring

Fold-out "double" plates measure approximately 9.5 x 13 inches (approx. 24 x 33 cm)
Single plates measure approximately 6.5 x 9.5 inches (approx. 16.5 x 24 cm)

Louis Benoit van Houtte, Belgian horticulturist, was born at Ypres on June 29, 1810, and died at Ghent May 9, 1876. He was associated with the Jardin Botanique de Brussels from 1836 to 1838. In 1839, after an expedition to Brazil, he went to Ghent where he founded the Ecole d'Horticulture and the horticultural journal Flore des serres et des Jardins de l'Europe. Flore des serres was an extensive work with over 2000 colored plates. It contained 23 volumes published from 1845 to 1883, some coming out after his death.

He also established a nursery there with managing partner the nurseryman Adolf Papeleu. Van Houtte's knowledge of botany, his commercial aptitude and language skills made the Establishment Van Houtte very successful. About 1845 he began sending out plant collectors to bring back orchids and other exotic plants from South and Central America. His company propagated many plants for European greenhouses. The first Victoria to be cultivated on the Continent grew there in a specially built greenhouse and the first confirmed water lily hybrid, N. Ortgiesiano-rubra, was created there by Eduard Ortgies. By 1870 Van Houtte owned the most flourishing nursery in Belgium, with an area of 14 hectares and 50 greenhouses. After he died in 1876 his son continued the business.

Louis Benoit van Houtte

Please click on a thumbnail to see most of the plate (the fold-out doubles are too large for a complete scan).
Please note: the enlarged scans tend to look darker than the actual print. The paper is generally much brighter than what appears on the scan.
These are truly gorgeous prints and the scans do not do them justice!

BELOW ARE THE FOLD-OUT "DOUBLE PRINTS" FROM Flore des Serres et des Jardins de L'Europe
WITH ORIGINAL CENTER FOLDS, AS ISSUED.

(click here for "single" plates)

Picairnea Altensteini

Pitcairnea Altensteini var. Gigantea

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

Picairnea Altensteini

Eucalyptus Cornuta

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

Hodgsonia Heteroclita

Hodgsonia Heteroclita

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

Mantisia Saltatoria

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Statice Imbricata

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Dracaena Aubryana

Dracaena Aubryana

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Hydrangea Pubescens

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Narthex Asafoetida

[entire image not scannable]
(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Phygelius Capensis

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Desmodium Penduliflorum

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Ouvirandra Fenestralis

[entire image not scannable]
(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Ouvirandra bernieriana

[entire image not scannable]
(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Nepenthes Villosa

Nepenthes Villosa

[entire image not scannable]
(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

Nepenthes Rafflesiana

Nepenthes Rafflesiana

[entire image not scannable]
(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

Godwinia Gigas

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Dischidia Rafflesiana

[entire image not scannable]
(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Dranunculus Crinitus

[entire image not scannable]
(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

Salisburia Andianthifolia

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$99.95

Rafflesia Patma

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

Rafflesia Patma

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$119.95

Darlingtonia Californica

Darlingtonia Californica

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

Lodocea sechellarum

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$149.95

various squash, gourds (no text available)

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$179.95

various pears

(no text available)

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double with vertical center fold, as issued. M atted in an off-white mat measuring about 17 x 13.25 inches – full margins are not shown in enlargement)

$249.95

Lilium Packmanni

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$149.95

Etablissement Van Houtte

Vue d'une partie des serres
de l'Établissement Van Houtte

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

minor foxing

Serre de la Victoria Regia vue a l'exterieur

Serre de la Victoria Regia vue á l'éxterieur

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

minor foxing

Exhibition internationale de Philadelphie

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$79.95

Un Conservatory
(Woodblock engraving, not lithograph)

(9½ x 13 inches fold-out double)

$59.95

For more scenes of gardens, exhibitions, glass houses, garden implements, etc.,
please go to page 6 of the "single-page lithographs" section of Van Houtte prints.

"Double-page lithographs"
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

"Single-page lithographs"
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

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