Lot 134C email save

WARNER, Robert (1814?-1896), Benjamin Samuel WILL

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London: B.S. Williams (I-VIII) and B.S. Williams & Son (IX-XI), 1882-1897. 11 volumes, royal quarto (304 x 240 mm). Half-titles. 527 lithographic plates by John Nugent Fitch (1 double-page), hand-coloured, printed in colours and finished by hand, or printed in colours, wood-engraved full-page portrait of Williams in vol.IX. Original publisher's binding of brown decorated cloth, the upper cover and spine blocked in gilt and black, the lower cover in blind, gilt edges. Condition: small tears to blank margins of plates 1 and 2, plate 144 with facing guard leaf torn with sections adhering to the plate surface; upper joint of vol.I split, small splits elsewhere, spines slightly chipped at head and foot, corners slightly bumped, inner hinges of vol.VII reinforced, inner hinges of vol.X split. Provenance: Alfred Cartwright (signature in vol.VII); Otto Salmonson (bookplate in vols.9-11); Lynn Abbott Trust. a complete set of this important record of most of the greatest orchid varieties discovered and described during the nineteenth century, with beautiful plates by john nugent fitch. The preface to the first volume lays out the aims of the publishers "The great advances which have been made within the last few years in the introduction and the cultivation of Exotic Orchids, have suggested the desirability of devoting a monthly publication to the illustration of the best forms of these singular and aristocratic plants, and also to the explanation of the most successful methods of growing them". The work was 'conducted' by Robert Warner in partnership with the publisher B.S. Williams from 1882 until the latter's death in 1890, at which point his son, Henry Williams, took over and the new partnership contiuned until the Album's conclusion in 1897. At various times these editors were helped by Thomas Moore and William Hugh Gower. The plates are by John Nugent Fitch (1840-1927) who, like his uncle Walter Hood Fitch, was a botanical artist and lithographer of the highest order. The plates in the present work together consitute his best known work. "Being of Royal Quarto size, the pages of the Album are sufficiently large to enable the artists to produce ample and intelligible portraits of the plants without their becoming cumbersome". The resultant work offers both a fascinating insight into the state of knowledge about orchids and their cultivation, and also an unrivalled visual record by one of the great botanical artists of the day. Great Flower Books (1990) p.149; Nissen BBI 2107; The Orchid Observed 23. (11)

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