All Lombard Street to a China orange

[keenreader]

In the phrase, apparently coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his book The Caxtons, "It is Lombard Street to a China orange", what is the orange, a fruit or a postage stamp?

[Argee2]

The quotation is: All Lombard Street to a China orange. This implies very long odds, Lombard Street being the centre of banking and mercantile transactions. To stake the wealth of London against an orange (fruit) is to stake great wealth against a trifle. (From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable).

[Argee2]

I should add, it is a very old saying which pre-dates Bulwer-Lytton although he does use it as you state in The Caxtons.