Edward Tuite Dalton: 'Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal', Calc...

Hammer

£950

Edward Tuite Dalton: 'Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal', Calcutta, Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing', 1872, 1st edition, 40 lithograph portrait plates as called for, comprising frontispiece 'The Rest at Noon' depicting a group of Oraons taken at Ranchi by Tosco Peppe, plus 39 other, lithograph portrait plates from photos by Tosco Peppe & Sir Benjamin Simpson, each with corresponding descriptive printed tissue guard, final few plates with marginal waterstaining/ slight soiling, VI, 327 + (12)pp index at end, folio, contemporary half green morocoo (worn), rebacked retaining original backstrip , inner joints reinforces, original marbled end papers, verso FFEP with comtemporary signature/ inscription '*** Peppe Katc Chola Nagpore (?)', appears to be signature of either Tosco Peppe or another member of Peppe family, replenished front and rear blanks. The term Bengal in Dalton's time referred to what are now the Indian states of Bihar, Orissa, West- Bengal, Jharkhand, tripura, Assam, Arunacha/ Pradesh, Megalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, and the present day country of Bangladesh. A rave and important work by the irish born Soldier & Anthropologist colonel Edward Tuite Dalton (1815- 1880), a georgraphically precise description of the lands and people with each tribe described by Dalton and portrayed in stunning lithographs. Possibly one of only 100 copies printed, and also stated in pretace of Herbert hope Risley's ethnologies of British Colonial India that 'the book is now a rare one, I am infirmed that they entire stock was destroyed by an unfortunate accident some years ago'