Reichenbachia, Orchids illustrated and Described. Second Series (2 volumes)

London: J. French for Henry Sotheran & Co and F. Sander & Co. of St. Albans, 1892. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 0x0x0. 2nd series only. 1892-1894. 2 volumes. Atlas folios, 520 x 385 mm. Bound in contemporary 3/4 green morocco, over green boards by Fazakerley. Gilt ruled. 6 spine compartments. Top edges gilt. Shelf wear to cover, rubbing. 96 chromolithographic plates; as well as wood-engraved illustrations within text. Minor offsetting from images. Illustrated by Joseph Mansell, G. Leutzsch and J.L. Macfarlane after Henry Moon, W.H. Fitch, A.H. Loch and C. Storer. <br> "First Edition of the second series of this "important and authoritative work for orchid growers" (Great Flower Books), named in honor 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 independent 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 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." - Christies, Sale 3400, 4 December 2014. <br> "By modern standards the work was of a monstrous size... Where the orchid was concerned, Sander never spared himself, but even so, the care lavished on the Reichenbachia still provokes astonishment. Apart from the elegance of Moon's drawings, the technical standards would have been a tribute to any large printing house. The blocks were hand-made, out of wood; and the chromolithographs were produced by the use of as many as twenty inks. The cost to Sander was enormous, and it is said to have been well over £7,000... It is no wonder that Sander often remarked in later years that the project almost ruined him" (A. Swinson, Frederick Sander: the Orchid King, 1970). <br> This is an oversized or heavy book, which requires additional postage for international delivery outside the US. (First series pub. in 1888.)