India | Indian hunting expedition of Henry Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baron Knaresborough, c.1883-1885

India

Indian hunting expedition of Henry Meysey-Thompson, 1st Baron Knaresborough. [Darbhanga and Calcutta: c.1883-1885]

2 large oblong folio albums (460 x 360mm. and 430 x 310mm.), manuscript list of game catch, 107 albumen prints, mounted on cards with captions in manuscript, first album bound in half blue morocco over blue pebble-grain cloth, all edges gilt, (rebacked, some slight wear to the boards), second album bound in full black morocco by Harrods, gilt ruled, upper cover with gilt initial “K” under a coronet, spine with gilt raised bands, gilt edges, some toning and foxing affecting card and sometimes images in both volumes

An unusual photographic record of Lord Knaresborough's safari and hunting expedition and tours through India, and a detailed visual record of India under the British Raj.

In the front of the larger album there is a manuscript tally of all the game caught, and various members of the hunting party are identified. Luminaries such as the Maharajah of Darbanga and the Duke of Portland were members of the expedition. Beyond the usual photographs of the big game caught on these expeditions, views of the Taj Mahal, and so on, there are also unusual scenes of camp life and local people.

Henry Meysey Thompson (1845-1929) was private secretary to Gladstone in 1874 and eventually became a Liberal MP in 1880. He was raised to the peerage in 1905 as Baron Knaresborough and in 1912 he became chairman of the North-Eastern Railway.