PRINCE ALEKSEI DMITRIEVICH SOLTYKOV (1806-1859)
PRINCE ALEKSEI DMITRIEVICH SOLTYKOV (1806-1859)

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PRINCE ALEKSEI DMITRIEVICH SOLTYKOV (1806-1859)
Voyage dans l'Inde pendant les années 1841-1842-1843, 1846-1846. Paris: Auguste de Bry, [c.1850]. Very large 2° (885 x 580mm). Lithographic title printed in gold and tints. 33 (of 36) tinted lithographic plates by de Rudder, Girard and de Rudder and Girard after drawings by Soltykov. (Lacking three plates, no. 2 'Ballet Dramatique, représenté par des Malabars duns un bois à Ceylan, près de colombo', no. 3 'Offrande d'un chef Kandien à un temple du Boudha' and no. 7 'Village de Catiganawa', the first plate 'Route de Colombo à Kandy' unevenly heavily browned and spotted, the remainder with variable light spotting and browning, mostly confined to margins.) Contemporary half brown leather over pebble-grained brown cloth (rubbed, joints repaired, raised bands rubbed two of which with crude tape repairs, corners bumped).

EXTREMELY RARE LARGE FOLIO EDITION OF SOLTYKOV'S SPECTACULAR VIEWS AND CEREMONIES OF INDIA, SRI LANKA AND THE HIMALAYAS. A former Russian diplomat, Soltykov moved to Paris in 1840 where he planned his travels to India. He made two voyages there in 1841-43 and 1844-46, producing a large number of high-quality drawings of the peoples, costumes, customs, ceremonies, architecture and views. The present lot shows his work off to its best advantage in very large folio format, with scenes from Sri Lanka, Madras, Lucknow, Calcutta, Delhi, Lahore and Simla, among others. Commercially and institutionally it is very scarce: ONLY THE BRITISH LIBRARY COPY CAN BE FOUND IN INSTITUTIONAL LIBRARIES, AND ONLY TWO COPIES CAN BE TRACED IN AUCTION RECORDS (Christie's 17 June 1998, lot 198, £21,850; The Library of Robert and Maria Travis, Sotheby's 26 May 2005, lot 262, £45,600). An octavo edition was published in 1851, but this folio does not appear in any of the standard bibliographies. A full plate listing is available in the online condition report at www.christies.com

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