Lot 163: 

FRANS BALTHAZAR SOLVYNS (1760-1824)
The Costume of Hindostan. London: W. Bulmer for Edward Orme, 1804 [-1805] [plates watermarked 1802 and 1804]. 2° (362 x 249mm). Text in English and French, 4 hand-coloured soft-ground etchings and 56 hand-coloured line- or stipple-engraved plates by Scott or Vivares after Solvyns, with tissue guards. (Occasional light spotting, minor browning and offsetting as usual.) Contemporary speckled calf, boards richly gilt with outer floriate border containing eagle and caduceus tools, and an inner border of anthemion, red morocco label lettered in gilt to spine (joints split but firm, extremities somewhat rubbed, corners bumped, boards scuffed, tail-cap worn). Provenance: Frances Mary Richardson Currer (1785-1861), heiress and bibliophile, her armorial book plate to the front free endpaper; Mathew Wilson, his bookplate to the front paste down.

FIRST EDITION PUBLISHED IN BOOK FORM of Solvyns' superb record of the people of Bengal, based on drawings made when the artist was resident in Calcutta between 1791 and 1803. The work was first published in parts with an undated title page, and was followed by editions in 1804 (as here) and 1807. The popularity of the images however ensured that the work stayed in print for many years. It was based on Solvyn's earlier work containing 250 plates: The Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos (Calcutta: 1799). Abbey Travel, 429; Colas 2765; Brunet V, 433; cf. Lipperheide Ld9.