SANDER, Henry Frederick Conrad (1847-1920). Reichenbachia, Orchids illustrated and described. London: J. French for Henry Sotheran & Co and F. Sander & Co. of St. Albans, [1886-]1888-1894[-1895].
SANDER, Henry Frederick Conrad (1847-1920). Reichenbachia, Orchids illustrated and described. London: J. French for Henry Sotheran & Co and F. Sander & Co. of St. Albans, [1886-]1888-1894[-1895].

Details
SANDER, Henry Frederick Conrad (1847-1920). Reichenbachia, Orchids illustrated and described. London: J. French for Henry Sotheran & Co and F. Sander & Co. of St. Albans, [1886-]1888-1894[-1895].

2 series in 4 volumes, 2o (530 x 400 mm). Text in English, French and German. 192 fine chromolithographic plates, by Joseph Mansell, G. Leutzsch and J.L. Macfarlane after Henry Moon, W.H. Fitch, A.H. Loch and C. Storer, wood-engraved illustrations. (Some minor marginal chipping to a few plates, a few plates repaired along inner margin, plate 50 in vol. 2, series 2 loose, joints of vol. 1 series 2 repaired.) Contemporary half morocco and boards (some rubbing to joints and edges). Provenance: Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Stickney Fund (bookplate dated 1890-95; stamps).

FIRST EDITION of this "important and authoritative work for orchid growers" (Great Flower Books). This glorious work on the orchid family is named in honour of Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (1824-1889), botanist and celebrated orchidologist. After a lifetime largely devoted to Orchids, Reichenbach's death during the publication of the present work caused controversy when it was revealed that he had left his herbarium and library to the natural history museum in Vienna, on the condition that the preserved orchids and orchid drawings were not to be consulted for 25 years after his death. Sander had started an independant business in 1874. The firm was later expanded with establishments in both America and Belgium. The present work covers the period when the firm was at its most active: Sander's had twenty orchid collectors working simultaneously in Brazil, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Madagascar, New Guinea, Burma, and Malaya. Henry George Moon's "most celebrated illustrations were made for Frederick Sander's great orchid book Reichenbachia..." (B. Elliott Treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society 1994, p.114). Great Flower Books p. 75; Nissen BBI 1722; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 10.219.

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