48 ORCHID PLATES WARNER ORCHID ALBUM 1891 Vol. #9

ORCHID CD. ROBERT WARNER and BENJAMIN SAMUEL WILLIAMS. 48 ORCHID HAND COLORED IMAGES ON COMPACT DISC FROM THE ORCHID ALBUM COLOURED FIGURES OF NEW, RARE AND BEAUTIFUL ORCHIDACEOUS PLANTS LONDON 1891 VOLUME 9

Fascination with orchids started in Europe around 1818. People became so taken with orchids that they reached a state popularly described as an "orchidelirium". The demand for these exotic beauties was so great that orchids became a big business. The wealthy commissioned professional plant explorers (Orchid Hunters) to gather plants from equatorial regions around the world.

The Orchid Album is one of the most important periodic publications on orchids to be published during the nineteenth century, with colored plates of the highest quality.

Each of the orchid species or hybrids are represented by a very high quality full-color chromolithograph plate by and after John Nugent Fitch on 48 sheets, partly hand-colored, partly color-printed, plates The present set is volume nine of the series, which also includes the uncolored portrait of Williams The work was eventually completed in 11 volumes in 1897 with 528 plates over a period of 17 years.

This CD portrays 48 high-resolution digital BMP images of orchids that appeared in Volume nine in 1891. These images were transferred from the originals. They have been scaled to print out on 8 ½" x 11" paper. These images can be printed directly from the CD or imported to Adobe Photoshop, Adpbe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Illustrator, PaintShop Pro, Adobe PhotoDelux, PrintMaster and other popular painting and drawing programs and printed on quality inkjet paper producing stunning results suitable for framing. Or for designing your own greeting cards, posters, brochures and calendars.

Benjamin Samuel William's obituary, appearing in volume 9, recollects the intentions of this magnificent work: "In 1881 he commenced his magnum opus, the Orchid Album, which was projected with the idea of supplying a demand for illustrations of Orchidaceous plants, with botanical descriptions of the plants figured, and notes on their cultivation ... Its appearance was hailed with great satisfaction in horticultural circles throughout the world, and it numbers among its subscribers nearly all lovers of Orchids and many of our leading and most influential horticulturalists." The illustrator, John Nugent Fitch (1840-1927), was the nephew of the equally-prolific botanical artist Walter Hood Fitsch. His original drawings for The Orchid Album are in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. Great Flower Books, p.80; Nissen BBI 2107; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 6282. (11)

'This important work was published periodically by B.S. Williams from his nurseries in Holloway, London, from 1882 until his death in 1890. His son, Henry Williams, continued the publication through to its conclusion in 1897. These dates are important as they mark the final period when significant new varieties of orchids were discovered in the wild. This work therefore, with its selection based largely on the discoveries made during the nineteenth century, offers an unparalleled record of all the best orchid varieties before the impact of the 'captive-bred' hybrids. The preface to the first volume lays out the aims of the publishers `The great advances which have been made within the last few years in the introduction and the cultivation of Exotic Orchids, have suggested the desirability of devoting a monthly publication to the illustration of the best forms of these singular and aristocratic plants, and also to the explanation of the most successful methods of growing them'.

The plates by John Nugent Fitch (a member of the greatest family of British 19th-century botanical artists) benefit greatly from the large format of the work `Being of Royal Quarto size, the pages of the Album are sufficiently large to enable the artist to produce ample and intelligible portraits of the plants without their becoming cumbersome'. The resultant work offers both a fascinating insight into the state of knowledge about orchids and their cultivation, and also an unrivalled visual record by one of the great botanical artists of the day.
Great Flower Books (1990) p.149; Nissen BBI 2107; The Orchid Observed 23.

BELOW IS A SAMPLING OF SOME OF THE IMAGES.

This CD contains the entire collection of original images as well as a set which has been digitally enhanced in the transfer to CD as in the scan below. These web images are electronically watermarked, the CD images are not.