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COSWAY-STYLE BINDING; SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE; RONALDSHAY, Earl of - India. A Birds-Eye View

Title: India. A Birds-Eye View
Description: London: Constable and Company Limited, 1931. A Superb Sangorski & Sutcliffe Cosway-Style Binding with Three Fine Miniatures COSWAY-STYLE BINDING. SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE, binders. RONALDSHAY, Earl of. India. A Birds-Eye View by the Earl of Ronaldshay. London: Constable and Company Limited, [1931]. Later printing (first published in 1924). Octavo (8 3/16 x 5 inches; 208 x 127 mm.). [ii], xiii, [xiv, blank], 322 pp. Twenty-four photographic plates and large folding map at end. Beautifully bound ca. 1931 by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, stamp-signed in gilt on front turn-in. Full brown crushed levant morocco, covers elaborately paneled in gilt, decoratively gilt-ruled board edges, elaborate gilt turn-ins. Spine with five raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments. Purple morocco liners decoratively stamped with gilt stars, ochre watered silk end papers. Inside front cover with large rectangular sunken panel with three very fine gold-framed oval miniatures under glass of Shah Jahan (2 x 1 1/2 inches), Mumtaz Mahal (2 x 1 1/2 inches) and a painting of the Taj Mahal (1 x 1 3/8 inches). A very fine example of a Sangorski & Sutcliffe Cosway-Style binding. Housed in the original fleece-lined, brown morocco-edged, tan cloth clip case. From the library of Ohio book collector B. C. Hoffman, with his initials in gilt at foot of spine. Lawrence John Lumley Dundas, 2nd Marquess of Zetland, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC, JP, DL (1876-1961), styled Lord Dundas until 1892 and Earl of Ronaldshay between 1892 and 1929, was a British Conservative politician. An expert on India, he served as Secretary of State for India in the late 1930s. Written for British citizens who "want more than a mere narrative of travel" but "something less than the studies of specialists," Lord Ronaldshay's India, A Birds-Eye View is "a mosaic of diverse pieces-a composition of historical, pictorial, statistical, and ethnographical vignettes." The Earl of Ronaldshay served British colonial interests in India for more than twenty years, notably as Governor of Bengal and Secretary of State for India. Photographic plates help readers familiarize themselves with visual representations of Indian culture, especially its geography and architecture; the Earl took and selected the photographs himself. Ronaldshay's goal is to "construct a mosaic which will present to the man who wishes to know something of this huge and varied land, whose recent history has been bound up so intimately with his own, an intelligible conspectus." (Preface). .

Keywords: SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE RONALDSHAY, Earl of Cosway-Style Bindings History Indian Literature

Price: US$ 9500.00 Seller: David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB)
- Book number: 05061

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