Van de Velde. Album of original drawings the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), circa 1840s

VAN DE VELDE, CHARLES WILLIAM MEREDITH

Album of original drawings of the Dutch East Indies, c.1840s.

Oblong folio (240 x 345mm.), 16 drawings on 15 leaves, comprising 2 watercolours over pencil and 14 pencil drawings, some with wash, nineteenth-century blindstamped crushed maroon morocco, some light spotting, wear to spine, extremities rubbed

The drawings include watercolour views in Sumatra, and Bantam, together with sketches of houses in Java and Sumatra, traditional boats, studies of people and their dress, dancers, trees, transport, and soldiers.

Van de Velde (1818-1898) was a Dutch naval officer, artist, cartographer, honorary member of the Red Cross and missionary. He spent much of his early naval career in Indonesia between 1838 and 1847, and published a large map of Java in 1847, and a book with lithographs titled Gezigten uit Neerlands Indie (Amsterdam, 1843-45; published in French as Vues de Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, et autres possessions Hollandaises, Amsterdam, 1846). See also lots 221 and 279.