Author: Jerrard, Paul (publisher) attrib. to Henry Noel Humphreys (1810-1879)
Title: GARDEN BEAUTIES
Description: London, Paul Jerrard 1854 acc. to British Library Hand-coloured lithographs (14) gum-heightened and printed by Paul Jerrard with text printed in gold throughout. . Imperial octavo (according to publisher's advert) blue 3/4 morocco gilt ruled to compartments between 5 raised bands and lighter blue cloth sides with gilt "DELHI 1857" to front cover (spine sunned top 7mm damaged). All Edges Gilt, all pages stubbed to cloth at hinge of spine. Presentation wreath-of-flowers from "Mrs Parr W. Hockin to Her Highness the Begum of Jowrah 12 July 1854" and later note "Captured at Delhi 22 September 1857 - Zenat Mahal's palace" + Floral titlepage with gilt titling + gilt pictorial & gilt printed contents page + 12 numbered hand-coloured gum-heightened plates of flowers, facing gilt descriptions decorated with nude cherubic children. Some offsetting to text & illustrations. Armorial bookplate of Lt. Colonel Cecil Angelo. Bloomsbury Auction's catalogue entry for another copy attributes art work to Henry Noel Humphreys, quoting Howard Leathlan's article in Book Collector 1991 which reproduces Humphreys’ original drawings for two pages and suggests he also wrote the text (p.179). Laid in is an ink-penned chronology of various claimants to the throne after death of Akbar Shah in 1837, the intrigues of Zeenat Mahal wife of Bahadur Shah, the siege of Delhi and end of the Moghul Dynasty. *A truly fine Victorian Gift Book with interesting Indian Mutiny provenance. The 1854 gift from the wife of Parr Willesford Hockin (an Indian Army surgeon) was probably to H.H. Nawab Aulia Begum Sahiba, principal wife of the Nawab (1825-1865) of Jaora in Madhya Pradesh - Hockin retired after the Mutiny as Indian Army Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals, he died 1867 (probate to widow Eliza Tanner Hockin). Former owner probably Lt.Col. John Cecil Cortland Angelo (1869-1957) whose uncle Frederick Cortland Angelo "fell in the Mutiny at Cawnpore" 27 June 1857 (tablet All Souls Cawnpore).

Keywords: Victorian gift book floral gilt India mutiny


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