Reverend Hobart Caunter and Thomas Bacon
The Oriental Annual: Containing a Series of Tales, Legends, and Historical Romances
Reverend Hobart Caunter and Thomas Bacon, The Oriental Annual: Containing a Series of Tales, Legends, and Historical Romances, London: Edward Bull, 1834-1840, 7 Volumes
Full-leather binding with a caparisoned elephant embossed in gold and entwined serpents blind-stamped on the cover, the spines with the title at the centre, a camel at the lower bottom, and a palm tree embossed in gold, all edges gilt (each)
7.75 x 5.25 x 1 in (20 x 13.5 x 2.7 cm) (each)
7 Volumes
Volume I: (1834); 254 including 1 later hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 1 later hand-coloured engraved vignette title and 23 later hand-coloured engravings from original drawings by William Daniell, R.A., and a descriptive account by Rev. Hobart Caunter, B.D.
Volume II: (1835); 242, including 1 later hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 1 later hand-coloured engraved vignette title and 20 later hand-coloured engravings from original drawings by William Daniell, R.A., and a descriptive account by Rev. Hobart Caunter, B.D.
Volume III: (1836); 297, including 1 later hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 1 later hand-coloured engraved vignette title and 20 later hand-coloured engravings from original drawings by William Daniell, R.A., and a descriptive account by Rev. Hobart Caunter, B.D.
Volume IV: (1837); 240, including 1 later hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 1 later hand-coloured engraved vignette title and 20 later hand-coloured engravings from original drawings by William Daniell, R.A., and a descriptive account by Rev. Hobart Caunter, B.D.
Volume V: (1838); 242, including 1 later hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 1 later hand-coloured engraved vignette title and 20 later hand-coloured engravings from original drawings by William Daniell, R.A., and a descriptive account by Rev. Hobart Caunter, B.D.
Volume VI: (1839); 244, including 1 later hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 1 later hand-coloured engraved vignette title and 16 later hand-coloured engravings, including sketches by the author and engravings by W and E Finden. From drawings by D Roberts, H Warren, C Stansfield, T C Dibdin, T Creswick
Volume VII: (1840); 268 including 1 later hand-coloured frontispiece, 1 later hand-coloured vignette title, 20 later hand-coloured plates, totalling 22 plates after drawings by William Daniell
INDIA IMAGINED: A COMPLETE RUN OF THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL, 1834–1839 - Gilt-Tooled Gift Editions with 145 Hand-Coloured Plates after William Daniell and Others
First issued in the golden age of British book illustration and travel literature, The Oriental Annual (1834–1839) is one of the most elaborately produced and widely circulated Victorian works on India. Conceived as an annual gift book combining travel narrative, historical fiction, and copperplate illustration, the series occupies a distinctive place in the visual construction of British India during the early Victorian period. It was published over six consecutive years, though most surviving collections include only seven volumes—making the present offering, a complete set of all seven volumes, a rarity of particular bibliographic and institutional significance.
The series was initiated and largely authored by the Rev. John Hobart Caunter (1794–1851), a clergyman who had travelled extensively in India and became a popular orientalist writer in England. Caunter’s text—part anecdotal travelogue, part romanticised fiction—offers a curated British perspective on the people, places, and customs of the Indian subcontinent. From Mughal emperors to Hindu ascetics, from Delhi to Madurai, his vignettes were designed to captivate British audiences with a blend of curiosity and exoticism, carefully edited to align with the moral and aesthetic sensibilities of the period.
The illustrations, executed after drawings by the celebrated landscape artist William Daniell (1769–1837), are a central component of the Annual’s visual appeal. Daniell, who had travelled across India in the late 18th century with his uncle Thomas Daniell, brought a degree of topographical accuracy and picturesque charm to the engravings, which were then rendered in fine steel by leading engravers such as Edward and William Finden. These plates—between 16 and 25 per volume—depict monumental architecture, archaeological ruins, court scenes, religious rituals, and landscapes with a clarity and delicacy that rank them among the finest printed images of colonial India produced during the era.
From 1837 onwards, following a thematic shift, the series pivoted towards more structured historical content, including Lives of the Moghul Emperors, and then, under the direction of Thomas Bacon, embraced a more fictionalised, narrative approach in the form of romantic legends and orientalist tales. This editorial evolution mirrors changing British tastes—from curiosity about the unknown East to a desire for dramatic and moralised storytelling framed within an imperial setting.
The complete run, as presented here in seven uniformly bound volumes, is notable not only for its physical integrity but also for the exquisite presentation. Each volume is bound in rich contemporary calf with elaborate gilt ornamentation, including gilt elephant motifs on the boards and gilt-tooled camels and palm trees on the spines—likely a custom order reflecting the work’s status as a gift book for elite patrons. The gilt edges further point to its production as a luxury object, intended as much for the drawing room as for the library.
Beyond its visual appeal, The Oriental Annual played an active role in shaping public perceptions of the East. It mediated Indian history, art, and culture for British audiences, reinforcing imperial ideologies of order, refinement, and dominion, while paradoxically relying on Indian grandeur and visual splendour to captivate its readers. In doing so, it contributed to the construction of a British cultural imaginary of India—at once romanticised, distant, and possessable.
Complete sets of The Oriental Annual in seven volumes are seldom encountered on the market. The present set, handsomely preserved and presented in uniform gilt bindings, is thus not only a bibliographic rarity but a compelling artefact of the visual and textual rhetorics that underpinned British cultural engagement with India in the early 19th century.
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