- 123
Sander, Henry Frederick Conrad
Estimate
20,000 - 25,000 USD
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Description
- paper
Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described. [First and] Second Series. London: H. Sotheran & Co., Saint Albans: F. Sander & Co., [1886-]1888; 1892 [-1895]
4 volumes bound in 8, elephant folio (26 7/8 x 19 3/4 in.; 683 x 502 mm). Text in English, French and German, 192 chromolithographed plates after drawings by Henry G. Moon and others, each plate guarded on linen, heavy plate paper hinged onto the fore-edge of each plate for protection; a few minor marginal finger smudges. Modern green three-quarter morocco over tan cloth, by Maclehose of Glasgow; a few signs of light wear at extremities.
4 volumes bound in 8, elephant folio (26 7/8 x 19 3/4 in.; 683 x 502 mm). Text in English, French and German, 192 chromolithographed plates after drawings by Henry G. Moon and others, each plate guarded on linen, heavy plate paper hinged onto the fore-edge of each plate for protection; a few minor marginal finger smudges. Modern green three-quarter morocco over tan cloth, by Maclehose of Glasgow; a few signs of light wear at extremities.
Literature
Great Flower Books, p. 75; Nissen BBI 1722; Stafleu TL2 10.219
Catalogue Note
First edition, no. 62 of the Imperial 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 had the text bound separately and the plates in boxes. Here the binder has employed a useful but protective accomodation to keep them together.
"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 had the text bound separately and the plates in boxes. Here the binder has employed a useful but protective accomodation to keep them together.