Robert Warner | Select orchidaceous plants. London, 1862–1875, outstanding botanical lithographs by Fitch

Lot 87
28.11.2023 14:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 6 000
AuctioneerSotheby´s
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1076610
Lot 87 | Robert Warner | Select orchidaceous plants. London, 1862–1875, outstanding botanical lithographs by Fitch
Estimate value
£ 6 000 – 9 000
Robert Warner and Benjamin S[amuel] Williams

Select orchidaceous plants. [first and second series] London: Lovell Reeve & Co., 1862-65; 1865-75

FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes, folio (447 x 315mm.)

79 HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHED PLATES by J. Andrews and W. H. Fitch, original green cloth with metal cornerpieces, covers lettered in gilt, gilt edges, minor foxing on blank versos of some plates, very occasionally transferring onto other plates, binding rebacked, two metal cornerpieces missing

With lovely illustrations by a distinguished botanical artist attached to Kew Gardens, these two volumes comprise a first and second series of works celebrating the exotic orchid family, flowers that enjoyed a particular vogue (and inspired a number of publications) among British gardeners of the Victorian period.

The first series, published between 1862 and 1865, contained forty plates, and proved so successful that the author undertook a second series immediately, which appeared between 1865 and 1875, with thirty-nine plates. A third series was published from 1877, but it is of very considerable rarity and seldom seen on the market.

Many of the plates in the first series and all of the plates in the second series were executed by the noted botanical illustrator Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892), called by Blunt & Stearn “the most outstanding botanical artist of his day in Europe” (The Art of Botanical Illustration, p. 265). Fitch was the preferred artist of eminent British botanist W. J. Hooker, the first director of Kew Gardens.
Address of auction Sotheby´s
34-35 New Bond Street
W1A 2AA London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.11.2023
Phone +44 (0) 20 7293 5000
Phone +1 212 606 7000
Email
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

Related terms

?>