The European in India; From a Collection of Drawings by.with a Preface and Copious Descriptions by Captain Thomas Williamson.

20 hand coloured aquatint plates, 149pp + [x] Index (including the Half Title and List of Plates); contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt-lettered in compartments, marbled edges, 28.2 x 22 cm, the first plate a trifle spotted with a small chip from the bottom margin, slight age-toning and minor spotting, in very good condition. Scarce suite of finely hand coloured aquatints depicting domestic colonial life in British India: the Europeans at their leisure attended by Indian servants. Doyley's compositions are often quietly satirical: Plate IV "A Gentleman Dressing, Attended by His Head-Bearer and Other Servants" shows a young man in his gown relaxed, seated and reading while an Indian servant washes his feet, another in the background pours his drink and yet another makes his bed, all overseen by the "Head-Bearer". The artist Charles Doyley was illustrating and observing a world in which was an intimate participant, he had been born in India into a family that had long served in India, himself serving as a member of the Bengal Civil Service from 1797 to 1838. Abbey Travel 435; Tooley 185.…