I have a cigarette card of Eugenie Lamesch (Wills' Cigarettes) depicting a polyantha cluster of buds and blooms. The buds show pink, the blooms show canary yellow flowers with the outer most petals tinged pink. The stems are reddish and furnished with some pretty nasty looking hooked prickles.
I agree that the characterization as thornless isn't supported by many references, Rosenlexikon and Journal des Roses being the only two. Both cigarette cards include reddish prickles. Maybe Journal des Roses got is right: thorns are rare but stout.
