Thomas and William Daniell | Oriental Scenery, London, 1795-1807 [but 1841], 6 parts in 3 volumes, folio

Thomas and William Daniell

Oriental Scenery. London, 1795-1807 [but 1841]

6 parts bound in 3 volumes, elephant folio (733 x 550mm.), 6 sepia aquatint titles, 144 finely hand-coloured aquatint plates after Thomas and William Daniell (those in the Hindoo Excavations after James Wales), additional sepia aquatint plate in part 5 titled "Obelisks near Mundipishwer" and numbered plate IV [bis], plates on thick paper, some titles and plates watermarked "J. Whatman / 1841", the plates interleaved with blank leaves, good margins throughout, contemporary green half morocco, marbled boards, gilt edges, pastedowns and endleaves spotted (some slightly creased), other minor spotting to plates (mostly marginal), occasional dust or finger stains, repairs to spines and corners, some scuffing and slight wear, edges a little bumped and rubbed

The elephant folio edition of "THE FINEST ILLUSTRATED WORK EVER PUBLISHED ON INDIA" (Tooley).

Thomas Daniell and his nephew William spent some nine years, from 1785 to 1794, in India making their studies, sketches and drawings of the scenery, architecture and antiquities there and then devoted a further thirteen years to publishing their remarkably accurate aquatints. The work is arranged in six parts, and is here bound so that the two parts (parts 3 and 5) which deal with excavations (Hindoo Excavations) and antiquities (Antiquities of India) are bound together. Separate text was published to accompany these plates which is not present with this set.

Oriental Scenery was a costly work at the time of publication, being offered at 200 guineas. This compares with the price of about £100 for the hand-coloured lithographs of David Roberts's Holy Land, issued some fifty years later. The work was in large measure responsible for the early nineteenth-century fashion for Indian-inspired architecture in England, reflected in the works of, for example, Humphry Repton and John Nash.

The work was originally published in parts from 1795 to 1808, and after the Daniells' deaths, the London publisher Bohn purchased the remaindered stock from their estate. The present set proves that Bohn must have possessed the original copper plates as this set is printed on sheets of Whatman paper watermarked 1841. The binding matches Bohn's advertisement and is therefore publisher's half morocco.

LITERATURE:

Abbey, Travel 420; Tooley (1954) 172