Bonhams 1793 : TIBET and SIKKKIM. MACAULAY (COLMAN) [Confidential]. Report of a Mission to Sikkim and the Tibetan Frontier, Calcutta, 1885

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4 Dec 2012 11:00 GMT London, Knightsbridge
Asia Beyond India
Back to auction 19952

TIBET and SIKKIM

MACAULAY (COLMAN, of the Bengal Civil Service) [Confidential]. Report of a Mission to Sikkim and the Tibetan Frontier with a Memorandum on Our Relations with Tibet, FIRST EDITION, AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY inscribed in pencil on flyleaf "J.D. Hooker from the author, June 1885"", 22 albumen prints, tissue guards, folding map (clean marginal tear without loss), publisher's terracotta cloth gilt, t.e.g., rebacked in skilfully matched calf, 4to, Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Press, 1885

Estimate:

£5,000 - 7,000
€5,900 - 8,300
US$ 7,600 - 11,000

Footnotes

SCARCE, ATTRACTIVE ASSOCIATION COPY gifted by the author to the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), who had travelled to Sikkim in 1848, a journey that resulted in his Rhododendrons of the Sikkim-Himalaya, 184951.

One of the articles of the Chefoo Convention was that China would give passports for a British mission to Lhasa, but the possibility of doing so was shelved until Macaulay, the Finanical Secretary of the Bengal Governbemnt was sent to the border to discover whether a mission was likely to be accepted by the Tibetans. In this he was assisted by Sarat Ghandra Das (the model for the Babu of Kipling's Kim), and returned to Calcutta convinced that the Tibetans would welcome a mission. In 1886 a trade and political mission, led by Macaulay, was assembled at the border, only to be cancelled by London at the last moment when it was realised that Lhasa had never been consulted about the mission, which was likely to be met with armed resistance.

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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