The Orchid Album, Comprising Coloured Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, and Beautiful Orchidaceous Plants. Vol XI.

WARNER, Robert.

Item Number: 105564

London: B.S. Williams, 1882.

First edition of Williams’ magnum opus, which set the standard for orchid description and illustration. Octavo, Volume XI. Original publishers pictorial brown cloth with gilt titles and tooling to the spine and front panel, with 47 colored chromolithographic botanical plates by John Nugent Fitch including one folding. In fine condition.

The term 'orchidelirium' refers to the Victorian era of flower madness during which the collection and discovery of orchids reached extraordinary levels. Wealthy orchid fanatics of the twentieth century sent explorers and collectors to almost every part of the world in search of new varieties of orchids which were brought to Europe by companies and individuals with financed collecting expeditions. Commissioned professional collectors would travel for months throughout the world in search of rare new species. These expensive expeditions were often shrouded in secrecy and it was not unusual for collectors to spread misleading information about the locations from which new orchids were acquired. New exotic orchids were most often sold at auction in London, fetching extravagant prices. During this time, however, very little was known about the cultivation of orchids and their survival rate was dismal. Through experimentation and by gathering more information on the growing conditions of orchids in their natural habitat, knowledge was slowly developed and led to the publication of scholarly and elaborately illustrated books on orchids. Among the most lavish and comprehensive of these was The Orchid Album. Published periodically to subscribers by Williams from his nurseries in Holloway, London, publication of the work was taken over by his son Henry after Benjamin Samuel's death, until its conclusion in 1897. The books capture an unprecedented variety of orchids in their wild states, before the onset of hybridization in the twentieth century. Each illustration is accompanied by a botanical description of the plant pictured and notes on its unique cultivation. The illustrator, John Nugent Fitch (1840-1927), was the nephew of the equally-prolific botanical artist Walter Hood Fitch.