Oriental Field Sports.

Valuable record of the sporting activities of British officers serving in India. Williamson's Oriental Field Sports is a valuable record of the sporting activities of British officers serving in India in the early nineteenth century.

Captain Williamson was an extremely talented amateur artist who had built up a fine collection of sketches suitable for turning into aquatint. He teamed up with Howett (a notable sportsman as well as an industrious engraver of animals) to produce this magnificent work, widely considered to contain the finest images of field sports of the Orient. By their very nature aquatint books were always very expensive, but the British public had a great curiosity about India and Williamson's work helped satisfy this desire to know more about the customs of Britain's new addition to its empire.

First edition; landscape folio (60 x 47.8 cm. approx.); paper & plates watermarked 'E' or 'J' Whatman 1804'; hand-coloured engraved additional title on india paper (some creases and repairs from verso), 40 hand-coloured aquatint plates by H. Merke, J. Hamble, and Viveres after Howitt's drawings after Williamson, some light old marginal damp staining, contemporary red half morocco gilt, joints neatly repaired, corners worn, a very good copy.

Abbey (Travel), 427; Bobins 276; Mellon/Podeschi 88; Nissen (ZBI), 4416; Schwerdt II, pp. 297-298; Tooley 508.