Lot 24
6 parts in one volume, 4to (356 x 263 mm). Letterpress title-page, 40pp. letterpress descriptive text; 6 aquatint section titles, 144 aquatint plates; all bound in on stubs. (A few leaves lightly spotted or soiled.) 20th-century quarter red morocco, marbled boards (lightly rubbed). Provenance: Library stamp on p.1 ("Para[?]zetti Folskola?); small stamp ("1984") on rear blank leaf.
Later quarto edition. "[Thomas] Daniell, assisted by his nephew [William], produced his best-known work Oriental Scenery (issued in six series) of Indian views making a total of 144 hand-coloured aquatint views of India. These represent Mughal and Dravidian monuments, cityscapes and sublime views of mountains and waterfalls and formed the most extensive work of its kind, finding subscribers throughout Britain as well as in Calcutta and Madras" (DNB).
"So lavish a production could necessarily only be purchased by the wealthy. Yet it was clear that a wider demand existed. Between 1812 and 1816, therefore, Thomas and Willam published a small quarto edition with plates reduced from their folio edition" (Archer 223). The plates in the present copy are arranged with corresponding text in six sections corresponding to the original sex series of the folio edition. Abbey Travel 432; Sutton 13(A).