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William Edwards, Sketches in Scinde, London: Graves, 1846

Lithograph title, 11 later hand-coloured lithographed plates by Haghe & Williams, plan of Scinde (each measuring 28.5 x 40 cm), all mounted on the card within ink-ruled borders, text page, a dedication leaf, and plan; original quarter red morocco, gilt embossed emblems to upper cover.
21.5 x 14.25 x 0.5 in (54.5 x 36.5 x 1.5 cm)

LIST OF PLATES
1. Title page. His Excellency Major General Sir C. Napier / 2. N.W. Front – Fort Hyderabad / 3. Tombs at Truck / 4. The Round Tower – Fort Hyderabad / 5. View from the Top of the Round Tower / 6. Main Gateway – Fort Hyderabad / 7. Main Guard and Government House / 8. Entrance to the Town of Schewan, on the side of Lal Shah Baz's Tomb / 9. Rorree on the Indus – Upper Scinde / 10. The Fortress of Deyrah (Cutch Gundava) / 11. Southern Entrance to the Strong-Hold of Truckee, in the Bootee Country (Cutch Gundava)

A VISUAL RECORD OF CONQUEST: WILLIAM EDWARDS’S SKETCHES IN SCINDE, HAND-COLOURED LITHOGRAPHS OF SINDH, LONDON: GRAVES, 1846

Published in 1846 in a luxurious large folio format, Sketches in Scinde stands as the only known 19th-century colour-plate work devoted exclusively to the region of Sindh in present-day Pakistan. Produced in the immediate aftermath of the British annexation of the province by General Sir Charles Napier in 1843, this rare volume is both a powerful visual record of conquest and an exceptional example of high-quality military topographical lithography.

The conquest of Sindh was a controversial but pivotal episode in British expansion into the northwest of the Indian subcontinent. Napier’s campaigns and the subsequent Treaty of Hyderabad brought Sindh under East India Company control. Lieutenant William Edwards (1809–1875), an officer in the Bombay Army and aide-de-camp to Napier, witnessed these events firsthand and used his artistic skill to record key architectural and strategic sites in and around the fortified cities of Hyderabad, Cutch Gundava, and Roree.

Edwards undertook the original drawings during his active military service in the region. He was present at the major engagements of the campaign and witnessed firsthand the surrender of Mir Nasir Khan and the Talpur dynasty. His drawings—executed on the spot—were later transferred to stone by Charles Haghe, the leading lithographer of the Day & Haghe firm, Lithographers to the Queen, with some assistance from Williams. The resulting suite of ten hand-coloured plates, heightened with gum arabic and mounted on card within ruled lithographic borders, is notable for its atmospheric richness, technical precision, and painterly subtlety.

The volume opens with a finely printed lithographic title in blue, featuring a vignette portrait of Napier flanked by martial emblems, followed by a dedication leaf in matching blue tones. A lithographed plan of Scinde provides geographical context, and a single sheet of descriptive letterpress printed in blue offers an index of the ten views. The scenes include multiple studies of the Fort of Hyderabad (including its round tower and main gate), tombs at Truck, the town of Sehwan and the famed tomb of Lal Shah Baz, the riverside city of Roree on the Indus, and the remote mountain passes and fortresses of Deyrah and Truckee in Cutch Gundava. Soldiers in red uniforms, flags, and insignia evoke British presence and military triumph, while the surrounding architecture and landscape are rendered with remarkable topographical accuracy and delicacy.

Sketches in Scinde is not merely a military souvenir—it is a visual narrative of imperial expansion, filtered through the refined aesthetics of mid-Victorian lithography. It provides a rare and early window into the architecture, terrain, and political iconography of Sindh at the moment of its integration into British India.

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