supplying orchid-mania

First edition of the memoir of prominent Victorian orchid collector Albert Millican, uncommon in trade. This copy with the bookplate of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940).

'Between 1887 and 1891, Millican made five trips to the orchid-rich areas of South America, concentrating on the Northern Andes. This was an era of orchidelirium, when a single rare specimen could fetch around $25,000 in today's money. Prospectors shipped millions of orchid bulbs to Europe and less than one-percent survived the journey. The reasons for this sudden interest in orchids has several overlapping explanations: the ascension of the modern greenhouse; Darwin's work on the coevolution of insects and orchids; and a wider Victorian fascination with curios collected from around the world. Millican's own story ends in the tenor in which he lived: he was stabbed to death by rivals while pilfering rare flowers... There is much to dislike about Millican's rhetoric, irredeemably tarnished by an imperial arrogance and denigratory anxiety regarding other cultures and peoples... And yet, the book remains worth browsing for how it complicates ephemeral beauty, making us confront the histories hidden in the folds of petals, stigma and stem.' (Dukes, 'Albert Millican's Travels and Adventures of an Orchid Hunter (1891)', The Public Domain Review, July 27, 2021).

First edition; 8vo; colour frontispiece and 21 monochrome plates, one of which is folding, 16-page undated publisher's ads at rear, title faintly toned, a little spotting to the edges of the text block; original green clot, titles and orchid design to spine and upper board blocked in gilt, black endpapers, bookplate of Neville Chamberlain, spine rolled, cloth rubbed with a little wear at the extremities, short scratch affecting the upper board, very good condition; 222pp.