Frederick Sander | Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described, [1886-] 1888; 1892 [-1895], 4 volumes in 8

Frederick Sander

Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described. London: H. Sotheran & Co., Saint Albans: F. Sander & Co., [1886-]1888; 1892 [-1895]

IMPERIAL EDITION, SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, 4 volumes bound in 8, elephant folio (661 x 490 mm.), 192 chromolithographed plates after drawings by Henry G. Moon and others, text in English, French, and German, contemporary green half morocco by Blunsow & Co., gilt edges, marbled endpapers, some spotting, a few plates adhered to facing leaves, a couple of small marginal tears (not affecting text or images), two spines faded to brown

First edition, limited to 100 copies, on Whatman paper, signed by the author.

"By modern standards the work was of monstrous size ... Where the orchid was concerned, Sander never spared himself, but even so, the care lavished on the Reichenbachia still provokes astonishment. Apart from the elegance of Moon's drawings, the technical standards would have been a tribute to any large printing house. The blocks were hand-made, out of wood; and the chromolithographs were produced by the use of as many as twenty inks. The cost to Sander was enormous, and it is said to have been well over £7,000 ... It is no wonder that Sander often remarked in later years that the project almost ruined him" (Swinson, Frederick Sander: the Orchid King, 1970).

The imperial edition originally had the text bound separately and the plates in boxes. In the present volumes the text and plates have been bound together in an attractive green morocco binding.

LITERATURE:

Great Flower Books, p. 75; Nissen BBI 1722