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Ouvrage dédié à sa Majesté Guillaume I Roi de Wurtemberg. Amsterdam, C.G. Sulpke, 1858. Folio (454 x 290mm). pp. (6), vi, 190, with hand-coloured lithographed frontispiece and 70 (56 hand-coloured & 1 double-page) lithographed plates. Contemporary half green morocco, richly gilt ornamented spine in 6 compartments with red gilt lettered label (hinges skilfully repaired).

The first major work on the orchids of the Dutch East Indies and Japan

Almost identical with and published at the same time as the first volume of the supplement to Blume's "Flora Javae", written in Latin. Blume was director of the Buitenzorg Botanic Garden and later became director of the State Herbarium at Leyden. "This work was elaborately illustrated by some of the most beautiful colored plates and most meticulous floral analyses to be found among the literature of the Old World orchids ... indispensable aids to investigators of the orchids of the entire East Indies."(Reinikka. History of Orchids, pp. 147-148). The first major work on the orchids of the Dutch East Indies and Japan. For the description of the orchids of Japan, Blume was helped by Von Siebold who gave him original drawings of Japanese orchids by Japanese botanists. "J'ai profité des communications de M. De Siebold pour comparer de même les 'Orchidées du Japon' avec celles de l'Archipel Indien. La tâche était difficile; mais j'eus encore ici la bonne fortune de pouvoir m'aider de dessins originaux dus au pinceau de botanistes japonais aussi instruits qu'habiles en leur art, que M. de Siebold voulut bien mettre à ma disposition" (From the introduction). Most of the beautiful illustrations are done after drawings by A.J. Wendel and are all lithographed by G. Severeyns, the best botanical lithographer of its time. One page with an old library stamp in the margin. A fine copy of this important and rare work.

Cordier. Bibl. Japonica 538; Nissen BBI, 175