The Orchidaceæ of Mexico & Guatemala by Ja.s Bateman, Esq.re “Like restless serpents, clothed in rainbow and fire, the parasites, starred with ten thousand blossoms flow around the grey trunks” Shelley
London: for the author by J. Ridgway and Sons, 1843. First edition.
Elephant folio (28 ¾” x 20 7/8” 728mm x 531mm): 52 leaves, pp. [8] (title, blank, dedication, blank, preface, engraved wreath, subscribers, index) 1–7 8–9 10–12 [4] (engraving of epiphyte-houses, list of “best” orchids cultivated in England, 2pp. synopsis) [80] (plate descriptions). With 40 hand-colored lithographs, 2 engraved plates, and 40 engraved vignettes.
Bound by Hering of London in half calf over marbled boards. On the spine, 6 raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel and author gilt to the third. All edges of the text-block gilt.
Rebacked with the original backstrip laid down. Boards rubbed with shallow losses to the extremities. Craquelure to the backstrip and pitting at the heel. Title-page and plates foxed. Plates bound along their right-hand edge. Bookseller’s ticket of Dr. Wilhelm Junk, a modern inventory sticker printed with the letter “Z” and completed in manuscript “CH 27,” and the bookplate of Lady Louisa Barbara Rolle to the front pastedown. Binder’s stamp and ink inscription “plk.” to the verso of the flyleaf.
Only 125 examples were printed of James Bateman’s (1811–1897) The Orchidaceæ of Mexico & Guatemala. His subscribers were few, the plates and coloring were intricate, and the sheer heft of the tome was enough to be parodied in its own pages (by renowned cartoonist, George Cruikshank, no less). Bateman’s masterpiece was produced in the midst of the Victorian era’s “orchid mania” or “Orchidelirium,” during which wealthy flora enthusiasts endeavored to collect and cultivate exotic orchid species, commissioning travelers to search for new and rare examples. James Bateman was one such enthusiast. A wealthy British landowner and passionate horticulturalist, Bateman employed collectors to obtain orchids on his behalf, particularly from South and Central America. It was his relationship with George Ure Skinner, a fellow Englishman and a merchant operating out of Guatemala, that enabled Bateman to secure many of the flowers featured in the present volume.
The Orchidaceæ was issued in parts between 1837 and 1843. Sarah Anne Drake (1803-1857) and Augusta Innes Withers (ca 1793-1864) produced 37 of the 40 original watercolors. Miss Drake of Turnham Green, as she was known professionally, was a botanist and orchidologist, and John Lindley's principal botanical artist. Mrs. Withers worked for the Horticultural Society, was appointed flower painter to Queen Adelaide in 1830, and later became “Flower and Fruit Painter in Ordinary” to Queen Victoria. Maxim Gauci faithfully translated their work to the plate. Of his skill and the volume’s artistry, Blunt writes, ''Bateman's giant folio eclipses the works of all who went before or came after him. Gauci, who executed the forty lithographs (thirty-seven of which were made from drawings by Mrs Withers or Miss Drake), was a true master of the process: his tone ranges from the palest of silvery greys to the richest velvet black; his outline is never mechanical or obtrusive; and the hand-colouring is executed with consummate skill. In this book, the great orchids of central America live for us in all their glory.'' Bateman would go on to publish two more monographs on orchids, but neither reached the cult status of his exotically alluring freshman release. Today, fewer than 55 sets of The Orchidaceæ of Mexico & Guatemala are known to exist (BHL).
Dr. Wilhelm Junk saw success in Berlin’s antiquarian book trade at the turn of the XXc. In 1882 he joined his uncle, Dr. Julius Friedländer, at R. Friedländer & Sohn Antiquariat and, after 15 years learning the trade, broke off to run an independent shop. The rise of the Third Reich pushed Junk (born Jeitteles) to relocate his business to the Hague, where he continued to specialize in Natural History publications until 1942, when he and his wife committed suicide to avoid the Gestapo’s arrest. His shop has since been stewarded by generations of bibliophiles and today bears the name Antiquariaat Junk.
Lady Louisa Barbara Rolle (1796–1885) was the influential second — and controversially younger — wife of John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle. Following her husband's death in 1842, she dedicated herself to the development of the gardens at Bicton House. A lover of flowers both in life and in print, her name appears as one of Bateman’s original subscribers on the recto of the fourth leaf. Lady Rolle’s beloved gardens are currently open to the public as Bicton Park Botanical Gardens.
BHL 8001181; Blunt pp. 249–251; Great Flower Books, p.48; Nissen BBI 89; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 342.
Cataloged by G.R. Murdock
Item #GRM0067
Price: $170,000