A number of botanical illustrations are known that were signed by Holsteyn or monogrammed with PH. These are believed to have been made by Pieter Holsteyn the Younger. Based on the signed or monogrammed sheets, many images of tulips, either individually or in tulip books, have been attributed to him. This is also the case in the De Witte Zwaan collection. The reliability of these attributions remains unclear. Pieter Holsteyn the Younger was born in Haarlem in 1614, the son of artist Pieter Holsteyn the Elder. Holsteyn the Younger owes his fame primarily to his engraved portraits and his wash drawings of birds and flowers. He worked in Haarlem, Enkhuizen, Münster, and Amsterdam. Tulip names are frequently spelled differently in tulip books. This was likely a phonetic reflection. The red-feathered Scipio (here spelled Schipio) was one of the most valuable tulip bulbs in the seventeenth century.

*Data on tulip prices in the seventeenth century is scarce. One source is the list of amounts bid at the Winckel auction in Alkmaar on February 5, 1637. The Scipio fetched 400 guilders there, and many tulips fetched bids of over 1,000 guilders.