One of the Largest and Most Beautiful Hand Colored Plate Books
... Twenty four views taken in St Helena, the Cape, India, Ceylon, Abyssinia & Egypt.
London: William Miller, 1809 [but T. Mc'Lean, circa 1822].
Price: $40,000.00
About the item
First edition, later issue. Hand-colored aquatint dedication/title, and 24 hand colored aquatint plates by D. Havell, J. Hill and J. Bluck, supervised by Robert Havell, after Henry Salt, on thick Whatman paper watermarked 1822. Interleaved throughout with blanks. Without the separately-issued octavo text, as usual. Elephant folio. One of the Largest and Most Beautiful Hand Colored Plate Books. Contemporary half calf and marbled paper boards, large morocco label on the upper cover, spine gilt. Foxing to a few plates. Abbey, Travel 515; Tooley 440; Prideaux, Aquatint Engraving, pp.234-237.
Item #323375
A very fine set of views after drawings by Henry Salt. Salt left London in 1802 for an eastern tour with Lord Valentia, visiting Indian and Ceylon and taking part in the first British mission to Abyssinia. At Calcutta they were entertained by the Governor-General, Marquis Wellesley (the dedicatee), and travelled to Benares, Lucknow, Ceylon and Madras. From Mangalore, Salt explored the Red Sea. After returning to Bombay and Poona, he travelled again to the Red Sea and made an extensive journey inland to the Abyssinian Highlands.
Salt's original drawings remained in Valentia's possession, and after Salt's death the plates too became his property. Like Fraser's Himala, Salt's Twenty-Four Views was published in the same size and style as Daniell's Oriental Scenery and is seen very much as a continuation of that great work. The plates include fine views of Chowringhee; the fort of Jaunpur; 2 aquatints of Lucknow including the mosque in the Great Imambara; the great Temple at Tanjore; Poona; the Chaitya Cave; 2 aquatints of Cairo; Cape Town, etc.
The present example is the reissue by Thomas M'Lean, printed on Whatman paper watermarked 1822, but otherwise printed from the same plates as the 1809 edition.
