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Frederic Shoberl, The World in Miniatures: Hindoostan, Containing a Description of the Religion, Manners, Customs, Trades, Arts, Sciences, Literature, Diversions, & c. of the Hindoos, London: Printed for R. Ackermann, repository of Arts, Strand; No date on the title page, but plates are dated 1822

Uniformly bound in contemporary full red straight-grained morocco, gilt-ruled covers and gilt-decorated spines with black morocco title labels. Marbled endpapers (each). Housed in a custom-made quarter red morocco and marbled paper-covered slipcase, gilt-ruled and titled in gilt on the spine
5.75 x 3.75 x 1 in (14.5 x 9.5 x 2.5 cm) (each)

In 6 Volumes
Volume 1: pp. xxviii covers the preface and 187 pages, including 8 plates and xviii advertisements pages at the rear
Volume 2: pp. 273 + 19 plates [4 folding]
Volume 3: pp. 324 + 22 plates [4 folding]
Volume 4: pp. 216 + 23 plates [2 folding]
Volume 5: pp. 234 + 16 plates
Volume 6: pp. 240 + 15 plates [2 folding]
[Together with:]
Frederic Shoberl, The World in Miniature: Tibet, and India Beyond the Ganges, containing a Description of the Character, Manners, Customs, Dress, Religion, Amusements, &c. of the Nations inhabiting those Countries, London: Printed for R. Ackermann, Repository of Arts, 101 Strand, [circa 1821].

xii, 216 pp., with 12 hand-coloured engraved plates, including frontispiece; printed on laid paper; bound in the original publisher’s russet-red paper-covered boards with printed paper spine label. Housed in a bespoke modern quarter red morocco and marbled paper-covered slipcase, with gilt floral tools and double-rule panels to spine, and the title stamped in gilt.
5.25 x 3.5 in (13.5 x 9 cm)


LIST OF PLATES
Volume I: 1. Trimurti, the Indian Trinity (Frontispiece) / 2. Brama / 3. Dourga Killing Maissassour / 4. Ganesa, God of Wisdom / 5. Supramanya, Second Son of Sheeva / 6. Manmadin, the Indian Cupid / 7. Vishnu Reclining on the Serpent Adissechen / 8. Vishnu in his third Incarnation as a Wild Boar

Volume II: 9. Malabar Writer / 10. Wives of Bramins / 11. A Mahometan Officer / 12. Sujah Dowlah, Visir of the Mogul Empire, Nabob of Oude, and his Ten Sons / 13. Hindoo Ladies paying a Visit to a Persee Lady / 14. A Bramin who teaches the Days, and his Wife / 15. A Pandidapapan Bramin and his Wife / 16. A Papanvaichenaven Bramin, and a Tatoidipapan Bramin / 17. The Fakeer Praoun Poury / 18. The Fakeer Perkasanund / 19. Ter or Sacred Chariot / 20. Tadin playing with fire. Ariganda Pandaron. Tadin with a padlock to his mouth / 21. Pandarons, Penitents of the sect of Sheeva / 22. A Poojaree singing the History of Mariatta / 23. Mariatta Codam, or manner of Dancing in honour of the Goddess Mariatta / 24. Nemessura Cavadi, or Woman rying the water of the Ganges / 25. A Rajah and his Wives celebrating the festival of Krishna / 26. A Religious Procéssion / 27. Ceremony of throwing the Colossal Statue of the goddess Cali into the water

Volume III: 28. A Hindoo cradle (Frontispiece) / 29. Hind?os throwing, themselves on mattresses covered with sharp Instruments / 30. A Species of Penance practised at the festival of the goddess Bhavani / 31. Musical Instruments, Plate 1 / 32. Musical Instruments, Plate 2 / 33. Musical Instruments, Plate 3 / 34. A Mahometan beating the Nagabotte / 35. A Hindoo Dancer called Baloks / 36. Devedassis or Bayaderes / 37. The Father of the Bride going with the nuptial presents to the bridegroom / 38. The bridegroom conducted in state to the house of the bride / 39. The Husband swearing to take care of his Wife / 40. Funeral of a Hindoo / 41. A Hindoo Widow burning herself with the corpse of her husband / 42. A Rajah giving audience / 43. Dress and ornaments of Hindoo Ladies / 44. A Rajpoot / 45. A Mahratta / 46. Pecali, or water- carrier, attending the army / 47. Sepoy officers. A private Sepoy / 48. A Seik. A sepoy in the French service / 49. A Sepoy in the native dress. A Hindoo soldier. A Brigbasi

Volume IV: 50. Basket-maker and his Wife (Frontispiece) / 51. Sugar Mill / 52. Hiñdoo Ploughman and Herdsman / 53. A Sóurer and his Wife / 54. Apparatus for Distillation / 55. Carpenter and Mason / 56. A Column from å temple at Benares / 57. A Choultry / 58. Taje Mahl / 59. Beater of Cotton ard his Wife / 60. Cotton Spinning / 61. Winding cotton / 62. Preparation of the warp for Weaving / 63. Weaver joining broken Threads / 64. Weaving / 65. Cloth Beater / 66. Cloth Painter / 67. Dyer / 68. Silk Dyer / 69. Winding Silk / 70. Ironer / 71. Malabar Tailor / 72. School Master

Volume V: 73. Potter's Wife (frontispiece) / 74. Potter / 75. Horse Breaker and Blacksmith / 76. Gold Beater / 77. Goldsmith / 78. Gilder / 79. Brazier / 80. Brazier's Wife / 81. Shell Cutter / 82. Water Carrier / 83. Telinga Barber and Malabar Barber / 84. Mahratta Shoemaker / 85. Catamaran and Chelingh / 86. Perfumer / 87. Dealer in Betel, Areca, &c / 88. Dealer in Pearls.

Volume VI: 89. Mahometan Woman Travelling (Frontispiece) / 90. Chess Board and Spring Bow for Shooting Tigers / 91. Tumblers / 92. Interior of Fort St. George with Rope Dancers, Tumblers, &c. / 93. Hindoo Jugglers swallowing a Sword and balancing a Buffalo / 94. Conjuror and Juggler with cups and balls / 95. Snake Charmer / 96. Wrestlers / 97. Tiger-Hunt / 98. Bengal Palanquin / 99. Mogul Palanquin / 100. Dolee / 101. Gadee / 102. Peon / 103. Head Peon

FREDERIC SHOBERL’S HINDOOSTAN: ACKERMANN’S HAND-COLOURED VISION OF INDIA FROM THE WORLD IN MINIATURE, 1822

Costume, custom and curiosity converge in this early 19th-century British vision of India, drawn from Ackermann’s celebrated World in Miniature series.

An extraordinary pictorial anthology and ethnographic overview of early 19th-century India, Shoberl’s six-volume Hindoostan, part of the esteemed World in Miniature series, offers an encyclopaedic survey of religion, society, trades, the arts, and daily life. Edited by literary polymath Frederic Shoberl and published by Ackermann in 1822, it presents 103 delicately hand-coloured engravings—drawn from Company-era paintings, folk customs, and temple iconography—serving as visual. This work provided early 19th-century British audiences with one of their first systematised, pictorially rich introductions to the complex social, religious, and artisanal life of colonial India.

First published between 1820 and 1830, The World in Miniature comprised 43 volumes covering a global range of cultures. Among these, the Hindostan series (in 6 vols.) is the most extensive on India. The companion volume on Tibet and Southeast Asia complements the Hindostan volumes by expanding into trans-Himalayan and Indochinese regions, often referred to as the “India Beyond the Ganges.” While the Hindostan series depicted Hindu culture and North Indian typologies, this volume ventures further eastward, reflecting British curiosity and imperial interest in less-charted territories like Burma, Siam, and Tibet.

Shoberl (1775–1853), a prolific editor, translator, and Orientalist, synthesised accounts from European travellers, civil servants, and missionaries—repackaged for a general readership in what may be considered an early example of illustrated popular anthropology. The series was part of a broader cultural project that sought to domesticate the empire through print, allowing armchair travellers in Britain to consume the image of India in manageable, decorative formats.

What distinguished Hindoostan within the broader series was not only its encyclopaedic scope, but the careful choreography of text and image: full-length depictions of castes, professions, and rituals are accompanied by explanatory text that blends fascination with moralistic undertones, typical of early colonial attitudes.
The 103 hand-coloured plates—many derived from late 18th-century Company School paintings and orientalist sketches—represent an extraordinary visual archive:
• Religious life: Brahminical rites, fakirs, suttee (sati), festivals
• Trades and occupations: Goldsmiths, potters, dyers, astrologers, dancers
• Social classes and costumes: From Mughal elites to rural peasants
• Cultural customs: Child marriage, dowry, processions, domestic interiors

These plates are significant not only for their aesthetic charm but also as artefacts of the way India was being seen, framed, and circulated visually in early 19th-century Britain. They fed into a growing appetite for “picturesque” representations of India, especially at a time when the East India Company was evolving from a commercial body to a territorial power. The books were often displayed on drawing room tables and became a key source of visual vocabulary in British decorative arts, fashion, and interior design.

Scholars of empire and visual culture (e.g. Homi Bhabha, Ronald Inden, and Christopher Pinney) have since argued that works such as this helped shape the ‘colonial archive of the everyday’, defining how India and its people were imagined, taxonomised, and romanticised from afar.

Shoberl’s Hindoostan thus occupies a unique position: a didactic pictorial anthropology, designed for British readers during the age of empire, and illustrative of a moment when the empire was being internalised through books, prints, and domestic display.

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