Americas, AsiaThere are 5 items
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Oriental Scenery
London, 1795-1807 (1808)Complete set of “the finest illustrated work ever published on India” (Tooley). The work comprises six series of engravings of Indian views, three published under the title “Oriental Scenery”, and three as “Twenty Four Landscapes, Views in Hindoostan”, “Antiquities of India”, and “Hindoo Excavations in the Mountain of Ellora”, with altogether 144 hand-coloured aquatint plates (and six sepia aquatint title-pages). An octavo volume of text was issued with each part, probably when each series reached completion. Perfect sets like the present one, in fine original condition, including all plates and text volumes, very rarely appear on the market. -
Twenty-four Views taken in St. Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, Abyssinia & Egypt
London, William Miller, 1809Fine copy of the first edition, with plates printed on a thick paper, mounted on guards and interleaved with card, features designated by Abbey as denoting a copy of an early issue (Abbey’s own copy was a late issue, post-1818). -
Illustrations of Indian architecture from the Muhammadan conquest downwards, selected from a portfolio of architectural drawings, prepared with much care, and principally by regular measurements, from buildings at Agra, Delhi, Juanpur, Benares, Chunar and numerous other places in upper India
Calcutta, Published by Thacker and Co., 1838-1841The first book on Islamic architecture in India, printed by “The Oriental Lithographic Press” in Calcutta, and issued to subscribers in fascicules consisting of four plates accompanied by a leaf of letterpress. Twelve parts were published in an orderly way (two leaves of preliminaries, twelve leaves of text, and forty-eight plates); thereafter, highly irregularly, until publication was suspended in 1841. No copy is known with the full complement of text and plates (69 plates appear to have been issued; plate XXV: “Doorway of a Merchant’s House, City of Bunarus” is absent in this set). The principal sites documented are in Uttar Pradesh: the Mosque Shahi Qila at Jaunpur, the mosques at Jami and Jhanjhiri, and the Chihil Sutūn at Jaunpur, built by Fīrūz Shah’s governor, and destroyed by the British in 1859. At Agra, Kittoe records the fort and Taj Mahal and sites at Benares and Fatehpur Sikri, all with plates of architectural details. Some Hindu sites are also documented, including the Cow Temple near Agra and the ancient temple to Shiva at Kalpi. -
The Oriental portfolio
London, Published by Smith, Elder and Co. (Printed by Stewart and Murray), 1838; 1840Rare first edition in original parts. The Oriental Portfolio set out to provide a comprehensive series of illustrations of Indian scenery and architecture, using lithography to keep its cost within the reach of general purchasers (each number was to be priced one guinea). The views were mostly taken from sketches drawn by Thomas Bacon (1813-1892), a Second Lieutenant in the Bengal horse artillery in 1835-1838. David Roberts (1796-1864) and Thomas Cole Dibdin (1810-1893) together “…transmuted Bacon’s charming originals into splendid designs of true 1830s orientalism, with towering domes and pavilions and archways and figures in exotic costume posed or grouped picturesquely and enlivened by touches of anecdote… It is greatly to be regretted then that the Portfolio expired after its second number in 1840, for if completed Roberts and his associates might have left us an India equal in sensitiveness and suggestiveness with his Spain, Palestine, and Egypt” (R.W. Lightbown, in India observed, p.125). The first number appeared in May 1838 and the second in July 1840, when publication ceased. In 1841, the two parts were reissued, on this occasion with Wilson’s name on title-page. -
Twelve Views in the Interior of Guiana: from drawings executed by Mr. Charles Bentley, after sketches taken during the expedition carried on in the years 1835 to 1839, under the direction of the Royal Geographical Society of London, and aided by Her Majesty’s Government. With descriptive letter-press, by Robert H. Schomburgk, Esq. Accompanied by Illustrations on wood
London, Ackermann & Co. (Whitehead and Co. Printers), 1841A fine, coloured copy in the original printed boards of Schomburgk’s account of his exploration of the Upper Guiana River basin, conducted in three expeditions in 1835-1839 under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society. It is the first book with coloured plates depicting the topography of the British colony. Abbey’s copy was also in “original stiff wrappers: front wrapper lithographed, as the lithographed title”, but was uncoloured.
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