SOLVYNS, Frans Balthazar (1760-1824). Les Hindous ou Description de Leurs Moeurs, Coutumes et Ceremonies. Paris: Chez l'Auteur & H. Nicolle, 1808-1812.

48 parts in 4 volumes, folio (552 x 408 mm). Half-titles, title pages with etched vignettes partly printed in color and finished by hand, text in English and French. 288 etched plates, partly printed in color and most finished by hand, including 36 double-page plates mounted on guards. (Some spotting to a few leaves, ca 12 plates in Vol. III trimmed and mounted or window-mounted to larger sheets, last text leaf of Vol. IV torn across text with old repair, a few half-titles with vertical creases.) Modern half green morocco gilt, top edge gilt.

FIRST EDITION, an early example of color printing. Solvyns, a Dutch native, traveled to Calcutta in 1790, arriving in 1791, He undertook a commission producing illustrations for Alexander Kyd, the Surveyor-General in Calcutta, to accompany a report was producing for the East India Company about his expedition to Penang and the Andaman Islands. Solvyns first issued his series of 250 engravings as "A Collection of Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings Descriptive of the Manners, Customs, and Dress of the Hindoos," a work printed in Calcutta, in 1799. Returning to Europe, he enlarged the work resulting in the present edition. The plates depict the customs, festivals, occupations, costume, and flora and fauna of the region. Abbey Travel 430; Brunet V:432; Colas 2767.

Property from the Dorros Family Collection

SOLVYNS, Frans Balthazar (1760-1824). Les Hindous ou Description de Leurs Moeurs, Coutumes et Ceremonies. Paris: Chez l'Auteur & H. Nicolle, 1808-1812.

SOLVYNS, Frans Balthazar (1760-1824). Les Hindous ou Description de Leurs Moeurs, Coutumes et Ceremonies. Paris: Chez l'Auteur & H. Nicolle, 1808-1812.