The orchid is the royal flower
Sander’s Elephant Folio of Reichenbachia on auction

A 125-year-old bound set of life-size orchid paintings, Reichenbachia by Frederick Sander will be offered on Auction #42.

Altogether 192 orchid species are reproduced by chromolithography from original paintings by Henry G Moon with 434 pages of accompanying descriptive text (in English, French and German) and line drawings.

HENRY FREDERICK CONRAD SANDER (1847-1920)

Sander, a German-born orchidologist and nurseryman, who was head of an orchid-growing and importing business in St Albans, England, with associated companies around the world, named the series in honour of Professor Reichenbach, the most famous orchidologist of the day. In 1885 Sander envisioned the monumental publication Reichenbachia, which would depict orchids life-sized, with text in English, French and German and was bound in leather. The work appeared in two series of two volumes each. Volume one of series one was published in 1888 and had 108 pages and 48 plates. Volume two of series one appeared in 1890 with 106 pages and 48 plates. Volume one of the second series appeared in 1892 with 52 plates in a 104-page volume. Volume two of the second series, the final volume published, consisted of 114 pages with 55 plates. 

In Sander’s words: "The orchid is the royal flower and, with gracious permission, I have dedicated each of the volumes to a reigning European Queen or Empress."
The volumes were in turn dedicated to Queen Victoria, the Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia, the Empress of Russia and the Queen of the Belgians.

HENRY GEORGE MOON (1857-1905)*

Henry George Moon was born 18 February, 1857, at Barnet, England as the eldest son of Henry Moon, a parliamentary agent of Westminster. Until his father's death in 1866, Henry's school days were spent at Dr. Bell's in Barnet where - even as a young lad - his love of art was evident. After his schooling at Barnet, he was a student at the Birkbeck and St. Martin's Schools of Art, where he won numerous awards.

In 1880 he joined the art department of The Garden, a popular horticultural publication. From that time on, most of the magazine's illustrated coloured plates, including many orchids, were done by him. 

Moon first visited St. Albans in 1884, to H. F. C. Sander's orchid nurseries to make drawings for Mr. Robinson who then was the publisher of The English Flower Garden. The following year, 1885, Mr. Sander asked him to illustrate the Reichenbachia, and he spent the next four years painting most of the pictures and supervising the work's printing. The printing was all done by hand in the Sander printing shops at St. Albans. Moon made the woodcut etchings and the firm's expert printer and engraver, Mr. Moffat, with the help of one or two boys, affected the printing.

A commentary from Mr. R. E. Arnold would say:  "H. G. Moon was very close to nature, and primarily, for this reason he stands out as, perhaps, the greatest of all British flower painters,... His plants live, there is an atmosphere of reality about them, and instantly, when viewing one of his pictures, is the plant's natural surroundings, its natural environment, cast vividly upon one's mind."

The outstanding Reichenbachiaremains his best known accomplishment.

The reproductions remain pristine – vivid and sharp. The four elephant folio volumes measure a gigantic 678 mm x 510 mm (21.5 inches by 16 inches) and weigh a total of 25 kg.
The set has been in the private collection of a Johannesburg botanical artist for some 45 years. 

*Source:  http://miosjournal.org/journal/2006/11/Reichenbachia.html

What is Chromolithography?*

Chromolithography was a major 19th century colour printing technique, using several inks and lithographic stones or plates, overprinted to create a single multi-colour image. It was patented in 1837 by G. Engelmann in France and used for colour printing from mid-century. Unlike later colour printing techniques in which colours are separated, chromolithographs typically have between four to twelve colours, selected for their suitability to the artwork being reproduced. Chromolithography was only used to print whole books when colour was needed throughout, publishers occasionally used it to add ornament in the form of illuminated initials and marginal decoration. 

(*R.M. Burch, Colour Printing and Colour Printers, 1910, repr. 1983)