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SOLVYNS, FRANS BALTHAZAR. 1760-1824. A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos. Calcutta: Mirror Press, 1799. image 1
SOLVYNS, FRANS BALTHAZAR. 1760-1824. A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos. Calcutta: Mirror Press, 1799. image 2
The Max and Peter Allen Collection of the Graphic Art of British India
Lot 14

SOLVYNS, FRANS BALTHAZAR. 1760-1824.
A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos. Calcutta: Mirror Press, 1799.

21 November 2023, 10:00 EST
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SOLVYNS, FRANS BALTHAZAR. 1760-1824.

A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos. Calcutta: Mirror Press, 1799.
12 parts in 2 atlas volumes. Folio (505 x 360 mm). Engraved general title, 12 engraved section titles, 236 (of 250) hand-colored engraved plates (10 folding), all mounted to larger sheets within manuscript ruled borders, most with printed titles, section and plate numerals pasted in margins. Modern three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, all edges gilt, modern cloth-covered clamshell case, with recess for text volume inside. Institutional stamps on some margins, one of the mounting leaves torn and inexpertly repaired on verso, some smudges, soiling and foxing.
WITH: A Catalogue of 250 Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs, Character, Dress, and Religious Ceremonies of the Hindoos. Mirror Press, 1799. 8vo (220 x 140). Bound as per atlas volumes, and housed in the same clamshell box.
Provenance: Ipswich Literary Institution (inscription in margin of main title, volume I); The Max and Peter Allen Collection.

FIRST EDITION, printed in limited numbers. Solvyns' drawings depict Hindu castes, servants employed in the domestic concerns of European families, the dress of Hindu men and women, vehicles, palanquins, fakirs, pleasure boats, boats of lading, various modes of smoking, musical instruments, and public festivals. The etchings have an exceptionally vivid quality, with fully realized backgrounds placing the figures in their "natural" habitats. Solvyns produced a later, enlarged edition entitled Les Hindous (Abbey 430) in 1808-1812, with 288 plates partly printed in color. His original drawings are housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Rarely found complete, and when so, often with fewer hand-colored plates than are present in this example. Abbey Travel 421; Colas 2763.

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