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a) James Forbes, Illustrations to Oriental Memoirs. With Explanatory Notices, London: Richard Bentley, 1835

24 pages with 83 black and white (of 85) and 24 hand-coloured engraved plates; contemporary green morocco, elaborately gilt, spine gilt, all edges gilt
31 x 25 x 3 cm

PROVENANCE
From the Collection of George Burns and Robert & Maria Travis (bookplate on the front pastedown)
Lot 75E, Bloomsbury Auctions, Travel Books From the Collection of Robert and Maria Travis, 2007
Acquired from the above
Important Private Collection, New Delhi

Reference: J R Abbey, Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860, 436

b) James Forbes, Oriental Memoirs: A Narrative of Seventeen Years Residence in India, London: Richard Bentley, 1834, 2 Volumes, 2nd Edition

Volume I: Frontispiece + xix + 550 pages
Volume II: Frontispiece +. viii + 552 pages [including 26 pages of Index at the end]
Original paper-covered boards with leather corners
22 x 14.5 x 3 cm (each)

Revised by The Countess of Montalembert, daughter of James Forbes. This is the condensed two-volume edition of the four-volume set published in 1813. This book was compiled after James Forbes retired in England.

James Forbes was a writer and artist employed by the British East India Company at the age of 16 in 1765. In the 17 years that he was in India, Forbes travelled to various towns in Gujarat, Poona, Bombay, Konkan and the Malabar Coast and compiled notes on every aspect of the country including botany, ethnology, and architecture.

The first wave of European immigrants to the Indian subcontinent included those who could seize control of the land such as sailors, emissaries, merchants, and the armed forces. However, the next wave included those who could research and document this new geography in hopes of finding new medicines or sources of revenue. This included physicians, cartographers, botanists, and naturalists, who went on to create unique projects such as James Forbes’s Oriental Memoirs (1813).

(Set of two)

NON-EXPORTABLE