Portraits of the princes & people of India.

Rare hand-coloured issue. The rare hand-coloured issue of Emily Eden's Portraits of the Princes and People of India. The author, Hon. Emily Eden (1797-1869), travelled out to India with her sister Fanny to visit their brother George (1st Earl of Auckland), who was Governor General from 1837 to 1842. Eden's fine portraits and textual descriptions record the Indian rulers, and often their families, with whom Lord Auckland met during his term of office as Governor-General and her work is of particular interest on account of the numerous fine portraits of notable Sikhs, including Ranjit Singh and Maharaja Shere Singh.

The first period of the sisters' stay in India was spent in Calcutta and from October 1837 to February 1840 Lord Auckland and his entourage toured through the Upper Provinces, meeting with Indian princely subjects. Amongst those encountered and portrayed by Eden during these tours were the Maharaja Sher-Singh, King of the Punjab, the Maharaja Ranjit Singh, The Raja of Nahun, the Raja of Patiala, and the Raja Hira Singh, son of the Prime Minister of the Punjab. The richness and splendour of these Indian figures and their entourages are captured by Eden, particularly in the plates relating to the bejewelled horses from the Maharaja's stable, and the elephants, dogs, hawks and hunting leopards sent to accompany Lord Auckland by the King of Oudh.

First edition; large folio, lithographic title mounted on card, 27 lithographic plates by Lowes Dickinson after Eden, printed by Charles Hullmandel, title and plates finished in contemporary hand-colour, mounted on 24 card mounts in imitation of watercolours with ink borders ruled by hand in brown or gilt, with letterpress captions on paper mounted on each verso, contemporary half brown morocco over cloth boards lettered in gilt to upper cover, light marginal discolouration and very occasional spotting, a very good copy.

Bobins 237; Pal & Dehejia pp132-133; Not in Abbey.