CAUNTER John Hobard. DANIELL (William), ill. URBAIN (Auguste - Lot 56

CAUNTER John Hobard. DANIELL (William), ill. URBAIN (Auguste), trans. Tableaux pittoresques de l'Inde. A splendid copy, in its rare gilt publisher's boards, of this picture of India in the early 19th century; fauna, flora, customs, architecture and gardens are depicted through the eye of English Romanticism and 22 delightful original engravings. Paris, Bellizard, Barthès, Dufour and Lowell, 1835. Large in-8 (24 × 16 cm), publisher's white gilt-plate boards, boards with wide acanthus frames, stamped in the center of a cartouche enclosing a woman seated in profile, holding a tulip in her hand and richly adorned in Indian style. Smooth spine featuring a hookah at the top, again gilded and with a plaque, the title piece, a long flower set at the foot of which hangs a string of pearls and a pair of maracas, followed by the date "1835", gilt edges (publisher's binding). The spines, though worn, show an old restoration that perfectly supports the inevitable fragility of the paper boards of this period. The boards are in very good condition, as is the spine, though rubbed in places. Illustrated with 21 fine English hors-texte engravings + a frontispiece, based on original drawings by William Daniell, the great British illustrator of the Romantic period, whose works can be found at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Harvard University Art Museums, National Maritime Museum, National Portrait Gallery, etc. The engravings are signed R. Daniell. The engravings are signed R. Woodman, J. Redaway, R. Wallis, W. Humphrys, J. H. Kernot, W. D. Taylor, J. C. Armytage, R. Brandard, W. J. Cooke. This publication is part of a series of 3 books published in 1834, 1835 and 1836, devoted respectively to Madras and its environs, Calcutta and Bombay. Our volume, dated 1835, is the second devoted to Calcutta. The disclaimer states that this publication follows the extraordinary success the previous year of "Oriental Annual or Scenes in India", the masterwork by John Hobart Caunter, an English priest and author trained at the East India Company Military Seminary from 1810. He was the author of numerous works, both literary and historical, most of which reflect his interest in India, where he spent a large part of his life. From the Oriental Annual, a complete picture of India published in 7 English-language volumes between 1834 and 1840, the Parisian publishers drew the three volumes translated by Auguste Urbain, described above. Of the many existing states of this work (colored boards, velvet, leather...) this one, in white gilt paper, is unquestionably the rarest and most desirable.