FORESTRY - WOOD SAMPLESTHIL (ANDRE) Sections transversales de 120 espèces de bois indigènes et exotiques, FIRST EDITION, text (with folding table) in publisher's green printed wrappers, 6 stiff plates exhibiting 120 window-mounted actual wood specimens (20 per sheet, one with small loss), loose as issued in publisher's green cloth book box, metal clasps and catches, the wooden sides split but complete, folio (320 x 240mm.) , Grêz-sur-Loing, J. Tempère, and Paris, Lucien Laveur, 1904Footnotes:SCARCE AND ATTRACTIVELY PRESENTED STUDY OF RARE WOODS, illustrated with 120 examples of wood types, both native and exotic species from Japan, India, Australia, Reunion, Guinea and Central America. Thil was a French forestry engineer who, having studied at the Imperial School of Forestry at Nancy, subsequently worked for the Régiment forestier de Paris.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •• Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
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CHURCHILL (WINSTON)Typed letter signed ('Winston S. Churchill') to A.S. Judge ('My dear Sir'), advising him to send his letter to the Daily Telegraph as he would have a better chance of getting it printed ('...Although this paper is unhappily hostile at the present time to our view on Indian policy, it nevertheless accords far more impartial treatment in its letter columns to our opinions... After all they have a far larger circulation than the Times...'), one page, dust-staining, creased with small tears at folds, 4to (255 x 200mm.), Chartwell, 26 September 1933Footnotes:Churchill, the defender of Empire, took a firm stance against partition and famously described Gandhi as '...a malignant subversive fanatic...' and '...a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir... striding half naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace while he is still organizing and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience...'. He refused to meet Gandhi on his trip to London in 1931 for the Second Round Table Conference: '...In my view England is now beginning a new period of struggle and fighting for its life, and the crux of it will be not only the retention of India but a much stronger assertion of commercial rights. As long as we are sure that we press no claim on India which is not in their real interest we are justified in using our undoubted power for our welfare and for our own...' (Martin Gilbert, Churchill, A Life, 2000, p.106).For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
[ROUX (JOSEPH) Recueil des principaux plans des ports et rades de la Mer Méditerranée], 124 engraved maps of ports and harbours (including Corfu, Malta, Cyprus, Naples, Venice and Tunis), one additional watercolour of a harbour, lacking title and table of contents, light toning, late eighteenth century red morocco gilt, g.e., spine detached and loss to head of spine, lacking clasp, rubbed, oblong 4to (160 x 230mm.), [Genoa, Yves Gravier, 1779] Footnotes: Provenance: Captain William Richardson R. N., gilt lettering on upper cover. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: • • Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
GANDHI (M. K. 'MAHATMA') Autograph letter signed ('Bapu') to Agatha Harrison ('My dear Agatha'), in English, beginning ('...If we here do the right thing we shall come out right. But I know we don't always do the right thing...'), satisfied with the Congress ('...there are some who are 24 carats gold. On them I have staked everything...'), the nonviolence movement ('...If war is to be thwarted... this is the only way... I go on in the hope no one will be damaged... My whole faith is in God's guidance – more easily said than proved!...') and the Indo-Burma agreement ('...a great betrayal. The seed has been sown for a perpetual quarrel...'), ending by sending an enclosure [not present], writing '...You are never out of my mind...', stamped address in purple ink at head of two sheets, 4 pages, browned, 8vo (147 x 112mm.), Sevagram, 30 August [19]41 Footnotes: 'MY WHOLE FAITH IS IN GOD'S GUIDANCE – MORE EASILY SAID THAN PROVED!' The recipient of our letter, Agatha Harrison (1885-1954), is known as a welfare reformer and 'unofficial diplomat' (G. Carnall, ODNB). Her academic work at the London School of Economics, where she was the first to hold a post connected to industrial welfare, led to work in China and the USA. Sympathetic to the cause of Indian nationalism, she acted as secretary of the India Conciliation Group and lobbied actively for Indian independence throughout the 1930's and 40's. She came into Gandhi's sphere when she worked with Charles Freer Andrews on the Second Round Table Conference in 1931 (see accompanying lot). From then on Gandhi asked her to use her considerable talents to work for a better understanding between the two countries. She spent three extended periods of time in India and with Andrews successfully acted as an intermediary for Gandhi during his Rajkot Fast in 1939. After the Second World War she returned to India as part of the Cabinet Mission in 1946 to negotiate with the nationalist leaders: '...Her distinctive mode of operation—an impeccable courtesy coupled with a sense that she believed totally in the integrity of those with whom she was dealing—was of immense service...'. The present letter is not published in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, New Delhi, 1999, online. Provenance: Private Collection, U.K. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
ORDONEZ DE CEVALLOS (PEDRO)Viage del Mundo, FIRST EDITION, woodcut coat-of-arms on title, full-page woodcut portrait of the author, final leaf supplied in manuscript facsimile, soiling to title, occasional light damp-stains (mostly marginal to table at end), later half calf over marbled boards, gilt morocco spine label [Palau 03651; Sabin 57524, 'Rare'; Streit I:345], small 4to, Madrid, Luis Sanchez, 1614Footnotes:Scare first edition of this account by Ordonez de Cevallos' (c.1557-1635) of his circumnavigation of the world from 1589 to 1593, the first to commence from the Americas, when he travelled throughout the Spanish colonies there. He devotes two chapters to one of the earliest accounts of Bermuda before it was settled by the Somers Islands Company in 1612. Provenance: ?Eighteenth century ownership inscription to verso of the front free endpaper; Antonio Canovas del Castillo (1828–1897), Spanish historian, statesman, and prime minister, bookplate; his sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 20 November 1975, lot 277.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •• Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
FORSTER (E.M.)The author's writing table from West Hackhurst, WITH A NOTE OF PROVENANCE FROM MAY BUCKINGHAM, being a Victorian mahogany side table with low ledge back and fitted with two frieze drawers, on turned legs, 122cm wide x 51cm deep x 78.5cm high, (48in wide x 20in deep x 30 1/2in high)Footnotes:THE TABLE FROM THE FAMILY HOME AT WEST HACKHURST. 'This table once belonged to E.M. Forster. It came into my possession in 1949 with other things from West Hackhurst when we moved from a flat to a house in London./ I used it as a dressing table in the bedroom he used when staying with us. He often used to write at it./ I have great pleasure in giving it to Jenny Mezciems, March 1981/ May Buckingham' (autograph note included with the lot). From 1925 Forster had lived at his mother's house, West Hackhurst, in the village of Abinger Hammer, Surrey, finally leaving in September 1946 after her death the year before. A few years later Forster began his long-term relationship with Bob Buckingham, a married policeman, and he included Buckingham and his wife May in his literary circle. Having bought for them the house at 11 Salisbury Avenue, Stivichall, Coventry in 1949, Forster ended up living with them for much of the time. And as he grew older, May also acted as Forster's nursemaid until he died in 1970.The table was given to Jenny Mezciems when she bought the house from May, and with the help of King's College, Cambridge they had a commemorative plaque mounted. As Jenny Mezciems recalls, 'He used that bedroom when living there and the writing table was under the window in the front bedroom. He would certainly have used it when writing in his diary, a large and heavy volume later made available in facsimile, and May gave me a copy. His final entry, 'How it rains!' must surely therefore have been written at that table'. Forster's typewriter, with the same provenance, was sold in these rooms on 19 March 2014, lot 193.Provenance: E.M. Forster; May Buckingham; Jenny Mezciems.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
SAUDI ARABIA - HIJAZ, MECCA AND MEDINAHicaz Rehberi [Light of Islam]. Haccin, Faydalari, Yollari..., text in Turkish, illustrations in the text, 2 large folding map plans (the Kabba and place of worship of the Hajj and Umrah; A-Masjid an-Nabawi), and one folding letterpress table loose in pocket inside lower cover, publisher's wrappers, small 8vo, Istanbul, Ismail Akgun Matbaasi, [1952]Footnotes:Rare Turkish-language guide to the Hajj and the Hejaz region, including folding maps of Mecca and Medina, issued for pilgrims, with instructions on suggested route, expenses, etc.This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: •• Zero rated for VAT, no VAT will be added to the Hammer Price or the Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Niebuhr, Carsten 'Description de L'Arabie D'Aprés les Observations et Recherches Faites dans le Pays Meme', Nicholas Moller Copenhagen 1773, title page with engraved vignette, with 25 plates as per table including 2 coloured and 5 folding maps including 'La Plus Grande Partie de L'Yemen', 4to. (250 x 185mm), full calf rebacked, fair condition, some staining and owner's notes, painted end papers
A 19th century Chinese hardwood tray top table with a rectangular top and a folding base, 73cm wide x 47cm deep x 58cm highTable top surface scratches, marks, stains.Very wobbly once in place however fixings need tightening.Stand structure has a broken part at a joining.See further images.
A 19th century Chippendale style mahogany occasional table with a galleried top, blind fret carved decoration, 31cm square x 63cm highAt present, there is no condition report prepared for this lot, this in no way indicates a good condition, please contact the saleroom for a full condition report
A William IV circular mahogany table with a heavy reeded column stem, platform base with four lion's paw feet and inset brass casters, 180cm diameter x 77cm highIn good condition, with some surface marks and wear. Some bleaching to one of the top sections just under the table top.The top will tilt. Alterations to underside. A screw missing where the clip handle is. The sash screws are period. We can't see a break to hold in a vertical position. Level, yes. No obvious signs of warping. It is a solid top. No wobble. Yes, original castors. Height: 75.5cms.
Vintage crotchet and cotton table mats, doilies, cushion covers A/F, early 20th Century cotton bloomers together with two 20th Century woollen cross stitch cushion panels, a mid 20th Century leather handbag and purse with Egyptian scenes and a machine made panel with applique on a button mesh ground. Location:BWR
Mixed furniture to include an early 20th century mahogany two-tier tea trolley with drop flaps, on turned columns united by square stretchers, on oversized castors, a Victorian mahogany coal purdonium, folding three tier mahogany cake stand, and a wooden framed folding fire screen/table combination, the top with floral Berlin wool work panel under a glazed top Location:
The unique and important 1936 ‘Palestine’ Military Division O.B.E., Second War R.R.C. and Second Award Bar group of ten awarded Chief Principal Matron W. M. Coulthurst, Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type, breast badge; Royal Red Cross, 1st Class (R.R.C.), G.VI.R. 1st issue, silver-gilt, gold, and enamel, reverse dated ‘1942’, with Second Award Bar, reverse dated ‘1945’; General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine (Matron W. M. Coulthurst. P.M.R.A.F.N.S.); 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Jubilee 1935, mounted as originally worn by Spink & Son Ltd, St. James, generally good very fine (10) £3,000-£4,000 --- O.B.E. London Gazette 11 May 1937: ‘In recognition of valuable services rendered in the field in connection with the operations in Palestine during the period April - October 1936.’ R.R.C. London Gazette 1 January 1942. The original recommendation states: ‘Miss Coulthurst opened the R.A.F. Hospital, Littleport, at the outbreak of war with speed and efficiency. She was posted to Torquay in April 1940, and has since maintained a high standard of efficiency.’ R.R.C. Second Award Bar London Gazette 14 June 1945. The original recommendation states: ‘Operational Commands 1 August 1944 - 31 January 1945 - Middle East. This lady was appointed Chief Principal Matron in March, 1944 and since then she has visited all hospitals and units where personnel of P.M.R.A.F.N.S. are serving in the Mediterranean, Middle East, India, Iraq and Aden. She has dealt with many problems in the most tactful and understanding manner and has been a great help to the Matrons in opening up new general hospitals in India. Miss Coulthurst has been a tower of strength to the Nursing Service in overseas commands.’ Of a total of 100 R.R.C. and Bars issued, only 4 have been awarded to members of Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service, and the award to Miss Coulthurst was the first. Moreover, her O.B.E. (Military) was the first ever operational award to a member of the P.M.R.A.F.N.S. - the sprinkling of earlier awards having been associated with the New Year and Birthday Honours Lists. Approximately 39 General Service Medals with clasp ‘Palestine’ were awarded to P.M.R.A.F.N.S. Winifred Maud Coulthurst was born in Salford in 1887, and was appointed Sister in the Royal Air Force Nursing Service in May 1920, advancing to Senior Sister in the P.M.R.A.F.N.S. in January 1930. Coulthurst was promoted to Matron in January 1932, and Chief Principal Matron (the equivalent rank of Group Captain) in March 1944. She served in Basrah, Iraq; Aden in 1929 and in Palestine in 1936 before her initial posting of the Second War at Littleport and the Torquay Palace Hotel Convalescent Hospital. The following detail is given of her time at the latter in Sky Wards, A History of the Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service by Mary Mackie: ‘The Officer’s Convalescent Hospital now flourished near Torquay, in the former Palace Hotel at Babbacombe. By the end of 1939 it had achieved its full capacity of 249 equipped beds and, after minor alterations, four bedrooms on the second floor had become an operating theatre. Patients recuperating in cosy rooms holding two or three beds, rather than in crowded wards, found the hospital a pleasant spot.... Matron W. M. Coulthurst led a nursing team of twenty-one members of the P.M.R.A.F.N.S. - four senior sisters, ten junior sisters and some VAD nurses - plus a number of nursing orderlies. Other staff included R.A.F. doctors and dentists, administration and supporting personnel, and about eighty civilian ancillary workers, most of whom were former hotel employees. Altogether, Torquay gave employment to around 200 people.... The hospital became known for its lively and optimistic atmosphere. BBC correspondent Macdonald Hastings, writing in London Calling, the overseas journal of the BBC, in October 1941, describes it as being like a country club, but with incomparable amenities: ‘wooded grounds with velvet lawns, tropical trees, luxurious flower beds... golf course, tennis courts, squash courts, swimming pool, archery butts, and gymnasium.’ Against this idyllic backdrop: ‘Disaster struck on the bitterly cold, wet morning of 25 October 1942. A Sunday morning, around 1100hrs. Most of the patients were in their rooms, shaving, dressing or reading Sunday papers. Domestic staff tidied up, kitchen hands prepared Sunday lunch, and nurses readied themselves for doctors’ rounds. Fred Payne, gowned and masked, was assisting in the operating theatre. Fluffy Ogilvie was on the first floor... As Fluffy and the MO went into the patients’ room, ‘we both saw, through the large windows, German planes, with their Swastikas clearly visible. There was no time to be brave or heroic, we dived under the bed...’ After preliminary machine-gun strafing, the enemy dropped high-explosive 500 kilo bombs. The first scored a direct hit on the east wing. The second landed in the road, its blast shattering windows, doors and partitions in the west wing and severely damaging the operating theatre. Lamps over the operating table fell on to the unconscious patient and a door flew across the room and knocked out Fred Payne. The floor where Fluffy Ogilvie had taken cover lost its door and windows. Rain and cold air rushed in, but all four patients, plus doctor and nurse, had survived. The latter pair dashed out into the hall to find ‘dust and rubble everywhere and, where there had been a further room, just one big gaping hole... The first body we came to was that of ‘Tinkle’ Bell. I saw her hand and arm sticking out beneath the heavy masonry. I also saw... two bodies which seemed to be hanging from the girder. The bomb had gone through all the floors down to the basement...’ Two platoons of the local home guard had been carrying out exercises close by. Two of their number died in the attack but the rest came to help, along with local air raid precaution volunteers... Through the rubble and dust, shivering against the cold winds that swept through shattered windows and gaping holes in brickwork, men carried laden stretchers to where doctors and nurses made rapid diagnoses, applied dressings and splints, and administered what drugs they could; amid such chaos and destruction they could offer little more than first aid.... Nineteen people died, one was missing, another forty-five suffered injury. Had it not been a Sunday, casualties would have been even worse because many patients would have been in the basement gymnasium and its milk bar, which had been flattened.’ After Torquay, and advancing to Chief Principal Matron, Coulthurst say extensive overseas postings for the remainder of the war. Chief Principal Matron Coulthurst retired in January 1947. In later life she resided at Limehurst St Margaret’s Road, Altrincham, Cheshire, and died at the Royal Infirmary Manchester in April 1950. Sold with the following related items and documents: Riband bar; named Buckingham Palace enclosure for R.R.C. Second Award Bar; Air Ministry letter of appreciation on the occasion of recipient’s retirement, signed by Philip Noel-Baker, then Secretary of State for Air, dated 16 January 1947; newspaper cuttings and photographic image of recipient; with copied research.
Orkney Collection of rare Court of Session rulings, [Edinburgh], 18th century all disbound, 4to or folio, not in ESTC unless otherwise stated, comprising:1. Information for Robert Earl of Morton against James Dunbar, and William Brown and Andrew Ross his Assignes, 22nd January 1718. 25 pp., browning to rear, final leaf near-detached ('The Earl of Orkney and Lordship of Zetland ... were ... given in Wadset to William Earl of Morton ... And its pretended that in 1647 the said Earl gave an Heretable Security to Sir Andrew Dick for the Sum of 100274 Merks ...');2. Information for James Earl of Morton, Walter Macfarlane of Macfarlane, Andrew Ross Stewart-depute of Orkney [etc.] against Sir James Stewart of Burray, and Robert Sinclair Son to Alexander Sinclair of Sixpeny, Pursuers, 29 February 1740. 20 pp. ('The Pannels are accused of an unlawful Convocation of the Lieges in Arms, and of invading Sir James Stewart's Property, and unlawfully carrying off his Servant ...') [ESTC N17130: two copies in libraries worldwide, BL and UCLA];3. Answers for James Earl of Morton, and Mr Andrew Ross his Chamberlaine, to the Petition of Thomas Traill of Westove [and others], 3rd June 1745. 31 pp., ('For some Years last past, these six Petitioners, as well as a seventh Gentleman, Sir James Stewart of Burray, have been backward and irregular in their payments');4. Answers for James Earl of Morton, Pursuer; to the Petition of John Trail of Westove, and others, Defenders, 31st May 1750.16 pp., folding table at rear ('Accompt of the Difference betwixt the Prices libelled, and the highest Prices proved'), ('If the Interlocutor shall not be adhered to ... it will be an Example of the most pernicious Consequence upon the Pursuer and his Estate in that remote Country ...');5. Answers for James Earl of Morton, Defender, to the Additional Petition of Alexander Earl of Galloway, James Traill of Hobister, and others, Udalmen of Orkney, 15th June 1752. 3 pp., splits along folds, soiled;6. The Petition of Alexander Earl of Galloway ... and others, Heritors and Udalers of the Islands of Orkney, 3rd January 1750. 28 pp., ('The family of Morton has been in Use of demanding and exacting the Skat which they claim Right to ... whereby the Heritors in those Islands are subjected to a double Land-tax') [ESTC T60810: one copy worldwide, BL];7. Information for John Trail of Westness, Pursuer, against James Fea of Clestran, Defender, 22nd July 1751. 28 pp.;8. Information for James Fea of Clestron, Defender; against John Trail of Westness, Pursuer, 4th December 1751. 17 pp., contemporary annotation to final page;9. Answers for the Lairds of Gairsey and Breakness. To the Memorial dispersed in Name of the Lairds of Burray and Eagleshaw, concerning the Election for the Stewart-ry of Orknay, c.1700. [4] pp., ('The Jesuits impose upon the World, by making a shew of the greatest Sincerity, when they intend to be the most disingenuous, which is very exactly imitated by this Memorial');10. Information for John Sinclair, Son to Robert Sinclair of Quendale Suspender, against Mr William Maxwell Minister of Rutherglen Charger, 10th June 1751. 4 pp., contemporary annotation at foot;11. Information for Mr William Maxwell late Minister of the Gospel of the united Parishes of Dunrossness, Sandwick, Cummingsburgh, and Fair Island, in Zetland, now Minister of the Gospel at Rutherglen, Charger; against John Sinclair younger of Quendale, Suspender, 13th June 1751. 4 pp., ('Mr Maxwell's Distress during these seven Years was such as very few Ministers of the Church of Scotland could have struggled with ... His whole Stipend was payable by Quendale ... But ... this was a Debt which that Gentleman did not willingly chuse to pay');12. Memorial and Abstract of the Proof. Mr John Ballantyne, Minister of the Gospel of the united Parishes of South Ronaldsay and Burray, Pursuer, against Sir James Stuart of Burray, Defender, 5th June 1744. 2 copies, 4 pp., short splits to folds ('Mr Ballantyne ... was deprived ... by the said Defender's violently and oppressively debarring him from his Right to the Glebe and Pertinents in the Island of Burray ... the grass thereof eaten up by the Cattle of the said Sir James Stuart').Together with a group of similar Orkney items, including: a) A True Copy of Sir Alex. Brand's Accompt of Charge and Discharge of the Rents of Orkney and Zetland, 1798 [i.e. 1708]; A True Copy of Sir Alex. Brand's Suspension, laid before the Lords of Treasury and Exchequer in Scotland, and his Account of Charge and Discharge, 1708; Accompt Sir Alexander Brand, of uncontroverted Articles, whereby the Decreet of Exchequer is satisfied and payed, and a great Ballance due to him, [no date]; Attestation by the Gentlemen and Ministers of Orkney of Alex. Brand's Great Service he did ther for His Majestie and Government, during the Tyme he was Steuart, Justificar, and Leasee therof, [no date]. 4 items, folio, 2 pp., 2 pp., 1 p., 2 pp., side-stitched together;b) Autograph letter from Hugh Moare of Boardhouse, Birsay, to P. Neill of Edinburgh, 25 July 1812, concerning George Lowe (1747-1795), Orcadian scholar, with a transcript 'Description of the Tusk' from Low's manuscripts;c) 4 albumen print photographs of Orkney-related deeds;d) 19th- and early-20th century printed ephemera including: The Memorial of the Reverend Francis Liddell contra the Ministers of Kirkwall Messers. Yule & Stalker. Kirkwall?, 1804. 4 pp., unbound; To Orkney by David Vedder, Music by R. Semple, Kirkwall: William Peace & Son, 1880. 4 pp., unbound; approx. 7 others similar; and numerous Orkney-related newspaper cuttings
Shaykh Muhammad Amir of Karraya or studio (fl. c. 1830-50) The Balfour album 26 watercolours on wove paper, each approx. 27 x 21cm (all portrait format except numbers 9, 12 and 25, landscape; numbers 8, 10, 18 and 24 with J. Whatman Turkey Mills watermarks visible), corner-mounted to varicoloured paper leaves in contemporary green half morocco album, contemporary manuscript titles in ink to foot, many additionally with contemporary English translations of the title in pencil to lower left (given below in round brackets where applicable; supplied titles in square brackets), all annotated lower right 'Shekh Mahomed Ameer, Calcutta at Karyah', 'S. Mohammed Ameer Painter, situated at Kurrya' or similar (except 'A teacher of Hindostanee', in the same style but not annotated). Contents comprise:1. Assabardar (Mace bearer)2. Sotaburdar (Mace bearer)3. Hooka burdar4. Serkar (Native clerk)5. Dewan (A landed proprietor)6. (A teacher of Hindostanee)7. Barber8. Chouruburdar [Fly-whisk wallah]9. Palankeen10. Matoy walla (Sweet meat seller)11. Burkundaz (Watchman)12. Hindoostany Carriage13. Dorcah (Dog keeper)14. Maytur[?] (House sweeper)15. B. Woman [Bengali water carrier]16. Estruwallah [Iron wallah]17. Dancing girl18. Grass cutter19. Abdawr (Wine cooler & table servant)20. Coachman21. Ayah (Ladies attendant)22. Serdawr Bearer (Body attendant & house servant)23. Hurkarah (Letter carrier or message bearer)24. Khansamah (Head table attendant)25. Karachee (Native carriage)26. Bheshtee (Water carrier).With a similar watercolour bound between numbers 22 and 23, titled Hindoostanee Lady, signed 'Zayn al-Abidin musawwir [painter]', 19 x 15.5cm, Qajar-style, heightened with gum arabicNote: Note: A major collection of watercolours by one of the leading practitioners of ‘Company School’ painting for European patrons in 19th-century India. The only sets of any comparable extent which we can identify are a group in the British Library comprising 17 pictures of servants, castes, and tradesmen (Add. Or. 171-187), and the famous Holroyd album, produced for Calcutta merchant Thomas Holroyd, given by him to the Oriental Club in 1839, sold by them in 1961 and now dispersed.Acknowledged as 'by far the most talented and original' of all Calcutta painters specialising in work for the British (Archer, 1972), Shaykh Muhammad enjoyed an enthusiastic following among the city's colonial elite in the second quarter of the 19th century. In 1844 the traveller Fanny Parkes purchased a set of paintings evidently similar to the present album, publishing versions of the serkar, burkundaz and the Bengali water carrier in her 1850 travel memoir, Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque.In 2019-20 Shaykh Muhammad's work featured in the Forgotten Masters exhibition of Company School paintings at the Wallace Collection, London, at which six of his paintings were shown. William Dalrymple, historian of British India and curator of the exhibition, paid tribute to his inimitable fusion of European and Indian techniques:‘The Shaykh was equally at home painting a Palladian house or thoroughbred horse, a group of dhobis or a pair of dogs. His single figures are sometimes shown in the Mughal tradition, in profile … but when he wished to, the Shaykh could paint in a more European style than any of his rivals, with low horizons and expanses of blank white space that no Mughal artist would have allowed. He had completely mastered perspective, foreshortening and shading, giving his work a realism and naturalism unique among Indian artists of his generation. Yet while in anatomical accuracy his horse portraits can stand comparison even with Stubbs, there is still an indefinable Indian warmth about his work, a Mughal application of the heart as well as the head'.Unlike his contemporary in Vellore, Yellapah, Shaykh Muhammad is not known to have produced a self-portrait, and little is known of his life or background. His paintings, however, have provoked speculation on his potentially ambivalent attitude towards to his patrons, who are either omitted entirely or, if they are present, are shown with their faces artfully concealed. One such painting, his depiction of a palanquin with a partially visible British passenger, is found in the present album (item 9). If this figure is indeed Thomas Holroyd, as stated in the Forgotten Masters catalogue, Shaykh Muhammad apparently had no reservations about reproducing the likeness for other customers.Provenance: By family repute acquired by Edward Green Balfour (1813-1889), surgeon and naturalist in India; thence by descent. Balfour travelled to India in 1834 as an assistant surgeon in the Madras medical service, and ended his career as surgeon-general in the presidency. An acknowledged polymath, he wrote on subjects including Indian languages and literature and forestry in addition to medicine. His most influential work in his own day was his Enyclopaedia of India and Southern Asia, published at Madras in 1857. Today he is also remembered for his pioneering ecological writings, which explored what he believed to be the 'direct relationship between deforestation, climatic change, and environmental degradation' (ODNB).Literature:Mildred Archer, Company Drawings in the India Office Library (1972), p. 76, cf. catalogue numbers 59-61.idem, Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period (1992), cat. nos. 80-82.William Dalrymple, ed., Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company (2019), pp. 17 and 122-131, cat. nos. 66-71.
Antiquarian literature Collection of works, 18th century Warton, Thomas. Poems on Several Occasions. London: R. Manby and H. S. Cox, 1748. [Bound with:] Richer, Henri. The Life of Maecenas ... Translated by R. Schomberg. London: for A. Millar, 1748. 2 works in one volume, both first editions, 8vo, contemporary sheep, slightly worn, very small worm-track to lower margins in second half of volume, staining to Warton pp. 181-5 [ESTC T125430 & T120687: 10 copies traced world-wide for the second work];Bishop, Samuel. Feriae poeticae: sive carmina anglicana elegiaci plerumque argumenti Latine reddita. London: printed by D. Leach, to be sold by J. Newbery and J. Walter, 1766. 4to, contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments, 18th-century ownership inscription of original subscriber Henry Case, later Henry Case-Morewood (c.1747-1825), of Christ's College, Cambridge, clergyman [ESTC T76163: 7 copies in UK libraries];Duhamel du Monceau, Henri-Louis. A Practical Treatise of Husbandry ... The Second Edition, corrected and improved. London: for C. Hitch [and others], 1762. 4to, contemporary sprinkled calf, title-page in red and black, 6 engraved plates (of which 4 folding), folding letterpress table, bookplate of Bryan Cooke of Owston (1756-1821), member of parliament for Malton, Yorkshire, title-page with ownership inscription of his wife Frances Puleston (1765-1818), local philanthropist (her portrait painted by George Romney, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), front joint cracked but holding, rear joint cracked at foot, tips worn, uniform moderate browning, spotting to endpapers and outer leaves [ESTC T82192];Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. A New Edition, with Notes Critical and Explanatory, by Ralph Church, M. A. Late Student of Christ Church, Oxon. London: William Faden, 1758-9. 4 volumes, 8vo, contemporary sprinkled calf, smooth spines gilt-ruled in compartments, errata leaf to each volume, list of subscribers in volume 4, wear to spine-ends, joints variably cracked but firm [ESTC T135123];and 2 others (Cowel, A Law Dictionary, 1708, folio, covers detached, and Journal of the House of Lords for 1818, large folio)Note: Note: The list of subscribers to Warton's work mentions a 'Mr Johnson', believed to be Samuel Johnson (see Eddy & Fleeman 66), and contemporaries including William Blackstone.
Wrede, Konrad (1865-1947) Streifzüge durch Ceylons Wunderwelt Jahreswende 1893-1894. Hanover: [privately printed], 1939. First edition, number 18 of an unspecified limitation, inscribed by the author to Frau Martha Loewe on the limitation page, 4to, original quarter cloth, mimeographed typescript, [1] 43 [3] leaves, 11 gelatin silver print photographs on 8 stiff card mounts with typescript captions (6 of them 20 x 15.5cm, the others smaller), plain paper dust jacket;Colebrooke, H. T. Miscellaneous Essays. London: Wm. H. Allen and Co., 1837. 2 volumes, 8vo, later quarter cloth, 7 folding lithographic plates (facsimiles of ancient Indian documents and inscriptions), folding letterpress table, bookplate of Pandit Sundar Lal, advocate, high court, Allahabad, worming, plates browned, plate 1 torn along stub;Hasegawa, Denziro. Travel to India with Leica, Tokyo: Meguro Shoten, 1939 (first edition, 4to, original yellow hessian lettered in brown, 213 pp., text in Japanese and English, 192 halftone photographs (on pp. 1-124), folding map, spine rubbed); and 4 others: E. F. Burton, Reminiscences of Sport in India, London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1885 (first edition, 8vo, contemporary quarter cloth, spine rolled, lending library label to front board, 8 lithographic plates, pp. 207/8 and 289/90 loose, a few blemishes and marks); J. D. Rees, H.R.H. The Duke of Clarence and Avondale in Southern India, with a Narrative of Elephant-Catching in Mysore by G. P. Sanderson, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd., 1891 (4to, recent red cloth, top edge gilt, xvi 213 pp., 5 autotype photographic portrait plates including frontispiece, 24 photogravure plates, folding map, text-leaves partly unopened, browning, worming (stronger towards front of volume, reducing towards middle), plate facing p. 74 chipped along fore edge, text-leaf I1 with closed marginal tears); Wibraham Egerton, An Illustrated Handbook of Indian Arms ... exhibited at the India Museum, London: William H. Allen & Co., 1880 (first edition, 4to, later cloth, folding map, 15 lithographic plates of which 2 in colours and several folding, original front wrapper bound in, lacking final leaf of index, spotting, tape repairs to half-title and index); and Sir John Malcolm, The Life of Robert, Lord Clive, London: John Murray, 1836 (first edition, 3 volumes, 8vo, modern cloth, engraved portrait frontispiece and folding map, ex-library, not collated)Note: Note: Konrad Wrede was a German army officer, collector and arts patron. No copies of Streifzüge durch Ceylons Wunderwelt traced in libraries. WorldCat cites three copies only of Hasegawa's work in libraries world-wide, with none in the United Kingdom.
South Africa Two travel albums, early 20th century Album 1: beginning on a cruise onboard the Union Castle Line, SS "Gaul", December 1903 - February 1904, sailing to South Africa past Capo Verde, the album containing manuscript menus, 2 laid-in watercolours of Capo Verde, 6 watercolours of the South African coast including Table Bay, several South African ink sketches, various laid-in South African postcards, several watercolours of South African landscapes including three watercolours of plantations in the Drakenburg Mountains, many pressed botanical specimens, several photographs mostly depicting tourists but also with three showing a Zulu wedding with the wedding party, bridesmaids and the bride and groom, several botanical watercolours, documentation from travel on to Lourenço Marques (Maputo), Mozambique, and Tanganyika with several watercolours, botanical illustrations and photographs, some documentation from the return cruise on the RPD "Herzog" of the Deutsche Ost-Afrika-Linie, with a watercolour painting of Bab-el-Mandeb, album 26.5 x 36.5cm, disboundAlbum 2: beginning on a cruise onboard the Deutsche Ost-Afrika-Linie, RPD "Tabora", December 1913-April 1914, sailing to South Africa from Marseille via Corsica, Naples and Port Said, Aden and Somaliland (Somalia), with many watercolours of views seen on the journey, alongside paintings of life onboard ship (such as the Christmas ball), the ship arriving in Kenya on Christmas Eve 1914 and including four watercolours of Mombasa, the journey continues to Tanganyika with watercolours of a local house and a baobab tree, with several botanical specimens before moving onto Zanzibar and Mozambique, before arriving in South Africa in February 1914. The South African section of the album comprises 30 watercolours (including Drakensberg Mountains, Mooi River Falls, views in Kamberg, Karkloof Falls, a local hut, scenes in Johannesburg and Pretoria and Table Mountain), several original photographs (mainly of tourists but some images of horsemanship), and a collection of pressed botanical specimens. The return journey leads through Namibia (five watercolours) and the Canary Islands. A typed travelogue of the journey to South Africa is loosely inserted.Provenance:Provenance: A cabin ticket for Miss Smythe and Miss M. Boyle is pasted to the initial leaf of the second album. One or two watercolours are signed 'Boyle', while a loosely inserted letter is signed Effay Smythe.
Scottish History and Literature 11 volumes including:Boece, Hector. The History and Chronicles of Scotland... translated by John Bellenden. Edinburgh: W. & C. Tait, 1821, 2 volumes, 4to, gilt coat of arms with motto 'Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense' on sides, rebacked, corners slightly rubbed;The Bruce and Wallace; published from two ancient manuscripts. Edinburgh: Manners and Miller [&c.],. 1820, 2 volumes, 4to, contemporary green half morocco, uncut, slightly rubbed, upper hinge of volume 1 split;Ramsay, Allan. The Ever Green being a Collection of Scots Poems, wrote by the Ingenious before 1600. Edinburgh: A. Donaldson, 1761. 2 volumes, 12mo, inscription on endpapers "Dr Ramsay", contemporary calf, rubbed;Stewart, Duncan. A Short, Historical and Genealogical Account of the Royal Family of Scotland. Edinburgh: W. Sands [&c.], 1739. 4to, contemporary calf, a few stains and spots, lacking the genealogical table; rebacked, rubbed;[Anonymous] Summary of the History, Principles, and Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Paisley: S. Young, 1821, 8vo, contemporary half calf, rubbed, upper cover detached;Lauder, William, editor. Poetarum Scotorum Musae Sacrae. Edinburgh: T. & W. Ruddiman, 1739. 8vo, 2 parts in one volume, contemporary sheep, rubbed, [ESTC T125388], lacking frontispiece;Church of Scotland. A Collection of Confessions of Faith, Catechisms, Directories, Books of Discipline &c. of Publick Authority in the Church of Scotland. Edinburgh: James Watson, 1719. Volume 1 only, contemporary calf, worn;Mackay, Robert. Songs and Poems, in the Gaelic Language. Inverness: K. Douglas, 1829. 8vo, contemporary cloth, title slightly torn in inner margin, binding a little soiled
India Group of rare Indian imprints 1) Report on the Territories Conquered from the Paishwa. Submitted to the Supreme Government of British India, by the Hon'ble Mountstuart Elphinstone, Commissioner. Bombay: Bombay Government Press, 1838. Second edition, 8vo, later red cloth, [2] 82 li pp., colour pencil marks to title-page, ink-stamp of the government library, Agra, to p. 1, moderate browning, scattered dark spots;2) England and India: being Impressions of Persons and Things, English and Indian and Brief Notes of Visits to France, Switzerland, Italy, and Ceylon. By Lala Baijnath of the N.-W. P. Judicial Service. Bombay: Jehangir B. Karani & Co., Ltd., 1893. First edition, one of 1,000 copies, 8vo, contemporary yellow cloth, [2] 4 234 pp., errata leaf and advertisement leaf at rear, worming, stitching split between pp. 152 and 153, closed marginal tears in pp. 69/70 and 163/4;3) A Memoir of the Late Raja Partab Singh of Tajpur, in the District of Bijnor, North-West Provinces. Calcutta: Erasmus Jones, "Cambrian" Press, 1879. First edition, 12mo, original cloth-covered card wrappers with skiver label to front cover, [4] 20 pp., mounted albumen portrait photograph as frontispiece;4) A Revised and Enlarged Account of the Bobbili Zemindari, compiled by ... Sir Venkata Swetachalapati Ranga Row Bahadur ... Maha-Rajah of Bobbili. Madras: Addison & Co., 1900. 8vo, original cloth, [4] 185 pp., folding table, inscribed to 'Sir Henry Bliss K.C.I.E. with the compliments of the Maharajah of Bobbili 18/6/1902 London' on the initial blank, spine and edges of covers sunned, loss to spine-ends;Together with 2 others (The Jeypore Guide by Thomas Holbein Hendley, Surgeon, Bengal Medical Service, Jeypore [Jaipur]: "Raj" Press, 1876, first edition 12mo, lacking frontispiece and map, with 17 other lithographic plates, 3 copies on Library Hub, worming; and The Panjab as a Sovereign State (1799-1839), Thesis approved for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of London, by Gulshan Lall Chopra. Lahore: Uttar Chand Kapur & Sons, 1928, lacking maps)Note: Note: Two copies of the Report on Territories Conquered from the Paishwa traced in UK libraries (BL and Oxford); the work was first published at Calcutta in 1821. A Memoir of the Late Raja Partab Singh of Tajpur is otherwise untraced. Library Hub cites three copies of the Bobbili Zemindari (BL, Oxford, SOAS).
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