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After JAMES BAILLIE FRASER (1783-1856)
Details
After JAMES BAILLIE FRASER (1783-1856)
[Views of Calcutta and its environs, from drawings executed by James B. Fraser, Esq. From sketches made on the spot.] London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1826 [but later]. Oblong folio (428 x 563mm.). 24 aquatint plates by Robert Havell junior or F.C. Lewis after J.B. Fraser, all on india paper mounted onto thin card. (Some light surface abrasion to sky area of Abbey's plate 18 'A View of the River, Shipping, and town...'.) 20th-century blue morocco gilt bound to style, covers with wide decorative borders including greek-key and stylised foliage rolls, the upper cover with large centrally-placed red morocco lettering-piece, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second, the others with repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
A fine copy of a later issue of this highly important suite of plates, here uncoloured and on india paper. The present issue is not recorded by Abbey, who does mention that 'The presence... [of] Smith, Elder imprints on [plate] Numbers 1-10 are certainly an indication of late impressions of the plates.' (Abbey Travel II, pp.454-455). James Baillie Fraser, amateur artist, merchant and banker, was based in Calcutta from 1813 to 1820 and is known for his Views in the Himala Mountains published in 1820, and the present work which provides an invaluable record of the topography of the fast-changing city. Influenced by other artists working in Calcutta such as George Chinnery and William Havell, Fraser produced atmospheric and detailed prints of the city from his sketches and drawings. In 1820 he sent his unfinished works home to England, 'my sketches of Calcutta... [are] in a very rough state indeed, but I have and shall have full materials to fill them up interestingly with figures and groups' (J.P. Losty, Calcutta, British Library Board, 1990, p.83). The fully worked-up watercolours for this work were sold in these rooms, Books and Manuscripts from Longleat, 9th July 2002. Cf. Abbey Travel, 494; cf. Prideaux p.336.
[Views of Calcutta and its environs, from drawings executed by James B. Fraser, Esq. From sketches made on the spot.] London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1826 [but later]. Oblong folio (428 x 563mm.). 24 aquatint plates by Robert Havell junior or F.C. Lewis after J.B. Fraser, all on india paper mounted onto thin card. (Some light surface abrasion to sky area of Abbey's plate 18 'A View of the River, Shipping, and town...'.) 20th-century blue morocco gilt bound to style, covers with wide decorative borders including greek-key and stylised foliage rolls, the upper cover with large centrally-placed red morocco lettering-piece, spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second, the others with repeat decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
A fine copy of a later issue of this highly important suite of plates, here uncoloured and on india paper. The present issue is not recorded by Abbey, who does mention that 'The presence... [of] Smith, Elder imprints on [plate] Numbers 1-10 are certainly an indication of late impressions of the plates.' (Abbey Travel II, pp.454-455). James Baillie Fraser, amateur artist, merchant and banker, was based in Calcutta from 1813 to 1820 and is known for his Views in the Himala Mountains published in 1820, and the present work which provides an invaluable record of the topography of the fast-changing city. Influenced by other artists working in Calcutta such as George Chinnery and William Havell, Fraser produced atmospheric and detailed prints of the city from his sketches and drawings. In 1820 he sent his unfinished works home to England, 'my sketches of Calcutta... [are] in a very rough state indeed, but I have and shall have full materials to fill them up interestingly with figures and groups' (J.P. Losty, Calcutta, British Library Board, 1990, p.83). The fully worked-up watercolours for this work were sold in these rooms, Books and Manuscripts from Longleat, 9th July 2002. Cf. Abbey Travel, 494; cf. Prideaux p.336.
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