Amsterdam, [unpublished], ca. 1950-1975. A huge collection of more than a thousand sketches, drawings (b/w line drawings in pencil or ink, and in [full] colour) of wild orchids, with additional annotations - in Dutch, with Latin names. On 376 leaves, including 41 partially or (near) completely in original watercolours. Preserved in contemporary folders, titled by the author.

Jan Vuijk was a botanist and artist specialized in drawing orchids, at the Hugo de Vries Laboratorium, the University of Amsterdam’s botanical research centre. He illustrated many botanical publications and wrote at least one paper on orchids, viz., A misrepresentation through a misleading diagnosis in Winberg’s Florula Javanica (Blumea 11, 1961). He became active in the 1950s and still made drawings of orchids as late as 1975. He was a plant photographer, too (see, for instance, W. M. Docters van Leeuwen, Generatiewisseling en wisseling van waardplant bi] vier Nederlandse galwespen in: De Levende Natuur 62 [1959]). Also, he made wall charts with botanical subjects, including distribution maps. Many of these are still preserved in University of Amsterdam collections (see the university’s online data archive). The present item is divided into several folders, ordered by genus (e.g., Spiranthes), tribe, or family, and/or zoogeographical (e.g. Azië [= Asia]). This suggests that it was not meant as the basis for a single publication but, rather, a collection of drawings, descriptions and notes made for different publications. Doubtless, part of the work present here remained unpublished. The individual folders are arranged and named as follows: Folder 1. Bulbophyllum; Folder 2. Cypripedieae; Folder 3. Ophrydeae, Neottieae Europa + Mediterraan [Mediterranean]; Folder 4. Ophrydeae Noord Amerika [North America]; Folder 5. Ophrydeae Azië [Asia]; Folder 6. Ophrydeae Australië [Australia]; Folder 7. Spiranthes; Folder 8. Afrika [Africa]; Folder 9. Amerika [America]; Folder 10. Australië [Australia]; Folder 11. Azië [Asia]. Two random examples of the contents: the Ophrydae Azië folder contains six leaves, with 40 illustrations, whereas the Cypripediae folder contains 81 leaves, with 176 illustrations, and a great number of smaller leaves with descriptive text, etc. Due to less than careful handling in the past, some of the illustrations may have been placed in a wrong folder, and several are not placed in a particular folder. Fortunately, nearly all leaves contain clear, unambiguous information on particular species and even specimens, which will ease any attempt to rectify the contents. In total there are well over a thousand separate drawings in pencil, ink or watercolour, the majority in fine pencil, but at least 41 are for the larger part or completely hand-coloured by Vuijk. In all a well-preserved, unique item of great botanical value.