Descripción
First edition. Elephant folio ( 76 x 55 cm), lithographic pictorial title, 1-page subscriber's list; addenda & corrigenda slip bound at back, 40 fine hand-coloured lithograph plates by P. Gauci after Miss S.A. Drake (16), Mrs. Augusta Withers (21), Miss Jane Edwards (1), Samuel Holden (1) and one unsigned, one uncoloured plan of "epiphyte-houses" and 38 wood-engraved vignettes, two by George Cruikshank,contemporary green polished calf gilt by Westley, covers with broad gilt borders, gilt lettered direct to upper cover, spine in 6 compartments, gilt lettered direct in second, others richly gilt, double raised bands, broad gilt inner dentelles, neatly rebacked preserving spine, a fine copy. From the John Roland Abbey Collection (1894-1969), with his bookplate. Great Flower Books p.73; Nissen BBI 89; Stafleu & Cowan 342. [ref: 90977] MAJOR ABBEY S FINELY BOUND COPY OF AN ORCHID MASTERPIECE - THE MOST DESIRABLE OF ALL ORCHID COLOR PLATE BOOKS WITH A STERLING PROVENANCE. Limited to 125 copies, the work is "probably the finest, and certainly the largest, botanical book ever produced with lithographic plates. In size and in splendour, Bateman's giant folio eclipses the works of all who went before or came after him. Maxim Gauci, who was born in Malta, executed the forty lithographs. a master of the process, he ranged his tone from the palest of silvery greys to the richest velvet black; his outline is never mechanical or obtrusive; and the hand-colouring -- whoever may be responsible for it -- is executed with consummate skill" (W. Blunt, The Art of Botanical Illustration, 1994, pp.249-251). Bateman was a pioneer of the culture of orchids. "In 1833 he sent at his own expense, the collector Colley to Demerara and Berbice to collect plants. Shortly afterwards he induced G. Ure Skinner, a merchant trading in Guatemala, to send him orchids. In 1837, he commenced the publication [of the present work]. which he completed in 1843. Bateman was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society. 1833 and of the Royal Society. 1838. In 1867 he issued A Second Century of Orchidaceous Plants. Between 1864 and 1874 he published A Monograph of Odontglossum. Bateman was not only the pioneer of orchid culture; he was also one of the first to advocate 'cool' orchid cultivation" (DNB). Sarah Anne Drake (1803-1857) and Augusta Innes Withers (ca 1793-1864), the two principal artists, produced 37 of the 40 original watercolors. Miss Drake of Turnham Green, as she was known professionally, was born in Norfolk. From about 1832 until 1847 she was a botanist and orchidologist, John Lindley's principal botanical artist, and also a member of his household. She returned to Norfolk in 1847 and married in 1852, but died of diabetes in 1857. Mrs. Withers worked for the Horticultural Society in the 1820s and was appointed flower painter to Queen Adelaide in 1830, and later became Flower and Fruit Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. Little more is known of her life other than her work. Major Abbey, the eldest son of William Henry Abbey, a brewer, was probably the pre-eminent book collector in the middle part of the twentieth century. He formed outstanding collection consisting of over 1,300 colour-plate books, illuminated manuscripts, and fine bindings. N° de ref. del artículo 1016Vault001
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