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A Private Collection of Orchidacea
Lot 5

KING, GEORGE. 1840-1909; and ROBERT PANTLING. 1856-1910.
The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalaya. Issued as: vol. VIII of Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. Calcutta: Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press; London: B. Quaritch, 1898.

22 June 2023, 12:00 EDT
New York

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KING, GEORGE. 1840-1909; and ROBERT PANTLING. 1856-1910.

The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalaya. Issued as: vol. VIII of Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. Calcutta: Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press; London: B. Quaritch, 1898.
4 volumes, 4to (350 x 278 mm). 453 partly colored (see note below) lithographed plates (8 double-page, nos. 244, 402, 404, 430 and 444 are bis plates) by various Indian artists after Pantling. Contemporary half morocco by R.H. Porter, minor wear to joints, light dampstaining to vol IV; occasional foxing and a few stains, some marginal dampstaining to plates of vol IV.
Provenance: William A. McCarty-Cooper (sale, Christie's New York, 25 January 1992, lot 90).

FIRST SEPARATE EDITION, limited to 300 copies. "Three hundred copies of the book have been printed ... The drawings have all been put on the stone by natives of Bengal educated at the Government School of Art in Calcutta. And the colouring has ... been done by the sons of Nepalese Coolies employed on the Government Cinchona Plantations, boys who had never until Mr. Pantling took them in hand been accustomed to use any implement more delicate than a hoe. Mr. Pantling's perseverance and skill in drilling these boys into accurate colourists has been a standing marvel to everybody who has seen them at work" (Preface). George King was superintendent of the Calcutta Royal Botanic Garden from 1871 until his retirement in 1898; the naming of a genus of orchids, the Kingiella, after him acknowledges his important role in the study of orchids in particular. Great Flower Books, p 83; Nissen BBI 1051; Stafleu & Cowan TL2 3660.

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