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DANIELL, Thomas & William.
A Picturesque Voyage to India; by the way of China.
Publisher: London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and William Daniell, 1810
Stock code: 68153
Price: £10,000 Currency Conversion
First edition. Originally issued in ten parts, "the aquatints of India by Thomas and William Daniell have been continuously popular ever since their publication between 1795 and 1810 … A Picturesque Voyage consisted of 50 aquatints depicting the places visited by the artists on their various journeys to and from China and to India. Five views show their approach to Calcutta and the city itself. The publication of these aquatints had been a mammoth task. The two artists prepared almost all the plates themselves. [William came to be regarded as] one of the greatest aquatinters of the 19th century … The Daniells' Indian aquatints soon made an impact on the British public and on British culture at a number of different levels" (Archer). "One of a series of books that are surely among the most beautiful things ever made" (IPEX Catalogue of Exhibitions of British Coloured Books 1738-1898). Text and plates watermarked 1808; Abbey's copy, most likely a later issue, had a mix of 1808 and 1817.
Folio (348 × 250 mm). Nineteenth-century half calf on marbled boards, flat spine elaborately gilt in compartments, marbled edges and endpapers, neatly rebacked preserving the old spine. 50 hand-coloured aquatint plates by Thomas and William Daniell, on thick paper, mounted on guards, each with accompanying text bound horizontally. A little rubbed on the boards, hinges reinforced with linen, bookplate removed from the front pastedown, some light browning and occasional spotting, occasional marginal finger-soiling, a few plates with marks, one or two just starting from the guards, but all sound, a very good and large copy.
