Select Orchidaceous Plants. With notes on culture by Benjamin Samuel Williams. Series 1: 1862 - 1865. 40 handcoloured lithographed plates by Walter Hood Fitch (31 pls.) and James Andrews (9 plates). Imperial Folio.

First edition of the first series of Warner and Williams' beautifully-illustrated large-format work, largely illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892): 'the most outstanding botanical artist of his day in Europe' (Blunt & Stearn The Artof Botanical Illustration [1994] p.265).

Warner and Williams realized that the huge explosion in varieties of orchids reaching the temperate regions meant that a process of selection was required to bring to the attention of the amateur enthusiast the 'new and beautiful varieties of the more ornamental of the species already known'. So they started publishing a work that was 'designed to present to the lovers of orchids with portraits of the most beautiful among the cultivated forms of this remarkable race of plants.' (Introduction).

Originally planned as a single volume the work eventually expanded to three, with the final volume being completed in 1891.

Binding needs restauration. Upper part of spine (6 cm) loose. - Foxing on front papers. Else clean.- Nissen BBI 2108.