St. Albans, etc.: F. Sander & Co., et al., 1888-94. In six volumes (including four text volumes in two, comprising the first and second series, and four portfolios). From the library of orchid breeder Oscar M. Kirsch. Folio. Illustrated with 192 chromolithographed plates after Henry George Moon and others. Text volumes bound in full red calf, stamped in gilt, scattered wear; all edges trimmed; marbled endpapers; scattered foxing to text, scattered repairs to same. Plates loose and laid into four matching red calf portfolios; foxing, wear, and soiling to plates; many plates with pinholes in corners. Great Flower Books p. 75; Nissen BBI 1722; Stafleu-Cowan TL2 10.219

First edition of this "important and authoritative work for orchid growers" (Great Flower Books), named in honor of Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (1824-89), botanist and celebrated orchidologist. 

Oscar M. Kirsch was an award-winning orchid breeder well known in the orchid world. He registered hundreds of orchid hybrids and won multiple gold and silver awards at international
orchid events for his orchids, including the Royal Horticultural Society’s Westonbirt Gold Medal in 1961. He was a speaker at four World Orchid Conferences and an original member of the International Orchid Commission on Registration and Nomenclature. He served as President of the Pacific Orchid Society and was an active member of many other orchid societies. The American Orchid Society awarded him the Silver Medal of Merit in 1988 for his service and contributions to the orchid world.

Mr. Kirsch received his early training at the municipal plant nurseries of Vienna, the Austrian State Horticultural School, and the gardens of Baron Alfons Rothschild at the Hohe Warte in Vienna. He immigrated to the United States in 1924 and rounded out his experience at horticultural establishments including the Julius Roehrs Company in New Jersey, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in Boston, and Armacost and Roysten in Los Angeles. Mr. Kirsch moved to Hawaii in 1933 to manage the famous orchid collection of Frank C. Atherton and to continue his hybridization work. After Mr. Atherton’s death 14 years later, Mr. Kirsch opened his own orchid business and sold orchids to collectors around the world. He operated his orchid business in Hawaii until his retirement in the 1980s.