The “Lac van Rijn,” a tulip mentioned as far back as the 17th century, is a tulip that still blooms every spring with its purplish-red and ivory-colored petals.
This tulip is one of the few remaining varieties from the Tulipmania that are still cultivated today. It’s remarkable how stable the color of the “Lac van Rijn” has remained, unchanged after all these centuries.
The first reference to “Lac van Rijn” comes from the 17th century in the tulip book by P. Cos, a florist and tulip grower from Haarlem. The book features a botanical illustration of this tulip, offering us a glimpse of its unchanged beauty even today.
Although the “Lac van Rijn” has survived for centuries and is also blooming this spring, during the Tulipmania period, it wasn’t considered a particularly special tulip. It was one of the cheaper varieties, likely because the tulips didn’t exhibit unusual patterns and was of consistent color.
The “Lac van Rijn” was a tulip in which people with fewer financial resources could invest, hoping to also profit from the craze.
The portrait of the “Lac van Rijn”, from the ‘Ninetynine Tulips’ collection, serves as the inspiration for the tulip NFT collections. The theme of the 99 ‘van Rijn’ NFT tulips is the ‘purple-red’, after the colours of its flower.
Ninetynine Tulips 