A ROYAL SHOOTING PARTY IN INDIA
His royal highness the duke of edinburgh in the oudh and nepal forests. A letter from india.
[Edinburgh and London].
Printed for private circulation [by Ballantyne and Co.], 1870.
First edition.
8vo.
64pp. Handsomely bound by Henderson & Bisset in contemporary richly gilt-tooled red hard-grained morocco, A.E.G. Extremities rubbed, scattered foxing, else a crisp copy.
A rare account of a big-game hunting tour, on elephant-back, of Oudh and the Terai of Nepal by the Royal party of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and late of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1844-1900), Queen Victoria's second son, during his round the world voyage on HMS Galatea. The Duke was the first British Prince to set foot in India on his arrival in December 1869, and was met by various native rulers who vied to outdo each other with their entertainments. In the foot of the Himalaya range the de-facto ruler was Maharajah Sir Jung Bahadoor, who accompanied the Duke on his eight days shooting; the result was 'a total of 305 head in eight shooting days', including five tigers.
COPAC and OCLC locate copies at just two libraries worldwide (BL and Yale). Interestingly, a very similarly bound copy of this work (also in red morocco, with identical title lettering to the upper board, but with different tooling) was sold in the New York rooms in 2020. Given the limited institutional holdings, and the luxurious bindings, one wonders if this privately printed work was only produced for presentation.
£ 3,750.00
Antiquates Ref: 17613
COPAC and OCLC locate copies at just two libraries worldwide (BL and Yale). Interestingly, a very similarly bound copy of this work (also in red morocco, with identical title lettering to the upper board, but with different tooling) was sold in the New York rooms in 2020. Given the limited institutional holdings, and the luxurious bindings, one wonders if this privately printed work was only produced for presentation.