Mrs Ernest Muriel (2 results)

First edition. Oblong quarto (13 x 10 1/4 inches). Brown paper and cover. Title page plus 24 leaves each bearing a tipped-in photographic illustration of quotidian life in what is now Myanmar. Printed cations beneath each image. Images are generally 8 x 6 inches. Publisher's string-tied brown wrappers with lettering and a peacock image in red and gold. Slight old crease to front corner of front wrapper but a very handsome and complete copy.Frances Matilda Muriel, "wife of Charles Ernest Muriel (d. 5 Oct 1949) of the Forest Service, India and Burma. The couple retired to Bordighera, Italy, where they lived at the Hotel Londra for several years, but returned to England (via France, Spain and Portugal) in 1942. Final years spent in Bournemouth, where they are buried. A gifted amateur photographer and painter. A number of her photographs were also hand-tinted. Photogravure of the ?Kyaungdwyn Pagodahm, Upper Burmah? by F.M. Muriel, ?a lady correspondent in Burma?, used as the illustration to the April 1899 issue of The Journal of the Photographic Society of India (vol. XII, no. 4), and a number of her photographs won prizes at exhibitions in India. A series of her views of Burma was published by Rowe and Co., Rangoon, in the early 1900s. Her paintings decorated the cabin of the Princess of Wales during her trip on the Irrawaddy; these paintings were later displayed at the Wembley Exhibition of 1924." (J. Falconer). Almosr surely self-published.

Published by Rowe & Co of Rangoon and London nd). A softcover. Oblong folio. 50 pages. 24 mounted plates - 8 colour (chromolithograph?) based on Mrs Muriel's paintings of Burma in the 1920's and the rest photogravure. Printed on dark-green paper. Limp green cloth binding printed in black, stitched with green yarn as issued. A touch of offsetting from plates. Wrappers rubbed and chipped to edges, rear wrapper creased. A scarce collection of poetry and photographs from colonial Burma, present-day Myanmar. The photographs are by Frances Matilda Muriel (1860-1953), wife of a civil servant posted to Burma, and the verses are by Rodway Charles John Swinhoe (1863-1927), Mandalay-based solicitor and librettist. It is a difficult item to date accurately, but two of the poems included were set to music by J.W.J. Alves and those musical scores were published in 1909 and 1910. Library Hub records a copy at SOAS, which is dated [191-?], an undated copy at the Glasgow School of Art, and a variant in green cloth (as per this example) produced for the British Empire Exhibition in 1924 at Manchester; WorldCat adds half a dozen more with speculative dates between 1900 and 1948. As a tourist production it may have been reprinted many times but this copy would appear to be from 1924. Uncommon. Photographs/scans available upon request.