Lot 59: SIR WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER (1785-1865)

SIR WILLIAM JACKSON HOOKER (1785-1865) A Century of Orchidaceous Plants selected from Curtis's Botanical Magazine. London: Reeve, Benham and Reeve, 1849. 4° (310 x 246mm). 100 hand-coloured plates by and after Walter Fitch, 100 lithographic plates. (Occasional very faint spotting, very light spotting to fore-edge of text-block but not penetrating into margins of text or plates.) Early 20th-century blue half morocco by Bumpus, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt (extremities lightly rubbed, raised bands on spine slightly more heavily). A very good copy of this selection of orchids. The descriptions are by Sir William Hooker, director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, with notes on the cultivation of orchids by John Charles Lyons (1792-1874), while the plates are superbly executed by W.H. Fitch. Great Flower Books 1990 p.103; Nissen BBI 918.