Robert Warner, Benjamin Samuel Williams and Thomas Moore, 1882-1897

WARNER, Robert (1814-1896), Benjamin Samuel WILLIAMS (1822-1890) and Thomas MOORE (1821-1887). The Orchid Album, Comprising Coloured Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, and Beautiful Orchidaceous Plants. London: B.S. Williams, at the Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, 1882-1897.

First edition of a classic of 19th-century botany, with 528 colored plates across 11 volumes. Benjamin Samuel Williams' obituary (appearing in volume 9) recollects the intentions of this magnificent work: "In 1881 [Williams] commenced his magnum opus, the Orchid Album, which was projected with the idea of supplying a demand for illustrations of Orchidaceous plants, with botanical descriptions of the plants figured, and notes on their cultivation ... Its appearance was hailed with great satisfaction in horticultural circles throughout the world, and it numbers among its subscribers nearly all lovers of Orchids and many of our leading and most influential horticulturalists." The illustrator, John Nugent Fitch (1840-1927), was the nephew of the equally prolific botanical artist Walter Hood Fitch. His original drawings for The Orchid Album are in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. Great Flower Books, p.80; Nissen BBI 2107; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 6282.

11 volumes, quarto (303 x 243mm). 528 lithographic plates by and after John Nugent Fitch on 527 sheets, partly hand-colored, partly color-printed, plates 9/10 a double-page plate, uncolored portrait of Williams in vol. 9 (scattered toning and spotting, minor marginal wormholes in final two leaves of vol. 9). Original brown cloth stamped in gilt and black, edges gilt (spines strengthened, extremities worn, new endpapers); each volume is housed in a cloth folding case. Provenance: William McCarty-Cooper (1937-1991; his sale Christie’s, New York, 25 January 1992, lot 96).