Thomas and William Daniell | Oriental Scenery, 3 volumes, London, 1816, nineteenth-century green morocco gilt

Thomas and William Daniell

Oriental Scenery. One Hundred and Fifty Views of the Architecture, Antiquities, and Landscape Scenery of Hindoostan. Drawn and Engraved by Thomas and William Daniell. London: Published by the Authors, 1816

6 SERIES BOUND IN 3 VOLUMES, folio (368 x 290mm.), general printed title in volume one, 6 aquatint hand-coloured vignette titles for each series (with date of publication for each series: series one: "January 1, 1812"; series 2: "July 1, 1812"; series 3: "May 1, 1813"; series 4: "May 1, 1814" ; series 5: "June 1, 1815" ; series 6: "Hindoo Excavations...", no date), lists and descriptions of the plates in each series in each volume, 144 hand-coloured aquatint plates on thick card, most with captions, nineteenth-century green morocco gilt by J. Wright, spines gilt with raised bands in 6 compartments, with orange calf labels to second and third compartments, edges gilt, marbled endpapers, inner dentelles gilt, light scattered foxing, not affecting plates

A finely bound copy, published with the general title, of "the finest illustrated work ever published on India" (Tooley). Thomas Daniel (1749-1840) and his nephew William (1769-1837) spent the years 1785-1794 in India making their studies, sketches and drawings of the scenery, architecture and antiquities there, and devoted a further 13 years publishing their impressive aquatints. These "represent Mughal and Dravidian monuments, cityscapes and sublime views of mountains and waterfalls and formed the most extensive work of its kind, finding subscribers throughout Britain as well as in Calcutta and Madras" (ODNB). Oriental Scenery was particularly expensive at the time of publication, selling for 200 guineas. The work was greatly responsible for the early-nineteenth-century fashion for Indian-inspired architecture in England, particularly apparent in the work of Humphry Repton and John Nash. Most of the beautifully hand-coloured as issued plates are captioned with the location, and with the publication information, reading "Published by Tho. and Will. Daniell No. 9 Cleveland Street, Fitzroy Square, London" with the dates of the respective series.

LITERATURE:

cf. Abbey, Travel 432; Tooley (1954) 172