Details
Robert Desmond Fitzgerald (1830-1892)
Australian Orchids. Sydney: Thomas Richards, 1875-1894. 2 volumes in one, 2° (480 x 325mm). Title, dedication, synopses and introduction to volume I, seven section titles. 1 uncoloured lithographic plate, 118 hand-coloured lithographic plates, 10 double-page, 115 printed on thick tinted paper all by A. J. Stopps or Fitzgerald after Fitzgerald. (Title, some text and about 13 plates spotted.) Early 20th-century half pigskin, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt in the second and third, t.e.g. (some light soiling and scuffing).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS PIONEERING STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN ORCHIDS. "COMPLETE COPIES OF THIS BOOK ARE NOW VERY RARE" (STAFLEU). Born in County Kerry, Fitzgerald arrived in Sydney from Ireland in 1856 to take up the government position of deputy surveyor-general in New South Wales. He was also a gifted botanical artist and his drawings and studies came to the attention of the government of New South Wales, who undertook publication of the work at the Government Printer's. The lithographer Arthur J. Stopps was an employee of the Lands Department. When Fitzgerald died in 1892, the government paid for the continued publication of the work, with Stopps completing the lithography from Fitzgerald's drawings and the descriptive text supplied by Henry Deane, a botanist and engineer-in-chief of railways in the region, from Fitzgerald's notes and his own botanical observations. Great Flower Books (1990) p.94; Nissen BBI 633; Stafleu & Cowan 1799.
Australian Orchids. Sydney: Thomas Richards, 1875-1894. 2 volumes in one, 2° (480 x 325mm). Title, dedication, synopses and introduction to volume I, seven section titles. 1 uncoloured lithographic plate, 118 hand-coloured lithographic plates, 10 double-page, 115 printed on thick tinted paper all by A. J. Stopps or Fitzgerald after Fitzgerald. (Title, some text and about 13 plates spotted.) Early 20th-century half pigskin, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt in the second and third, t.e.g. (some light soiling and scuffing).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS PIONEERING STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN ORCHIDS. "COMPLETE COPIES OF THIS BOOK ARE NOW VERY RARE" (STAFLEU). Born in County Kerry, Fitzgerald arrived in Sydney from Ireland in 1856 to take up the government position of deputy surveyor-general in New South Wales. He was also a gifted botanical artist and his drawings and studies came to the attention of the government of New South Wales, who undertook publication of the work at the Government Printer's. The lithographer Arthur J. Stopps was an employee of the Lands Department. When Fitzgerald died in 1892, the government paid for the continued publication of the work, with Stopps completing the lithography from Fitzgerald's drawings and the descriptive text supplied by Henry Deane, a botanist and engineer-in-chief of railways in the region, from Fitzgerald's notes and his own botanical observations. Great Flower Books (1990) p.94; Nissen BBI 633; Stafleu & Cowan 1799.