Beschreibung:

WARNER, Robert (1814-1896) and Benjamin Samuel WILLIAMS (1824-1890). Select Orchidaceous Plants [First Series] . London: John Edward Taylor for Lovell Reeve & Co., 1862-5. 2° (460 x 323mm). Title, dedication, introduction dated 1862 (2pp.), extended introduction , dated 1865 (2pp.), contents, 40 HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES by J. Andrews and W. H. Fitch, on guards. (Slight offsetting to text leaf for plate XXI, from previous contact with the plate, plates XXIV and XXV with small area of light spotting at lower inner margin.) Contemporary green cloth, titled in gilt on front cover (short tear to foot of spine, corners bumped, extremities lightly rubbed). A clean copy of the first series of Warner and Williams' detailed work on newly imported species of orchids and their cultivation. The work was originally planned to extend only to the forty orchids described and illustrated in the present work: Warner, in his 1862 introduction, states that "The publication has been projected as a labour of love, not of profit; but being costly in its production, the extent to whic it may be carried beyond the present volume will depend in great measure upon the patronage extended towards it". By 1865, however, he adds that "the success of the present series . . . has far execeeded our expectations", and announces that a prospectus will therefore be issued for a second series of plates. The second series was published between 1865 and 1875, and a third followed in 1877, which culminated in 1891. Nissen BBI 2108; Great Flower Books p. 80.