BOMBAY

[The 'Apostle of Liberalism': Sir James Mackintosh, Scottish historian and Whig politician.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to Rev. Thomas Maurice of the British Museum, on topics including Anglican ordination and a visit to Christie's auction house.

Author: 
Sir James Mackintosh (1765–1832) of Kyllachy, Scottish historian, jurist and Whig politician [Thomas Maurice (1754-1824), Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, orientalist
Publication details: 
ONE: ‘Serle Street Lincolns Inn August 13th. [no year]’. TWO: ‘‘Charlotte Street / Monday Eight OClock P.M.’ [No date.] THREE: ‘Wednesday’. [No date or place.]
£180.00

Although he later repudiated his position, Mackintosh is notable for having defended the French Revolution from Edmund Burke's strictures. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. With regard to Maurice's oriental studies, it is worth noting that Mackintosh was Recorder of Bombay, 1804-1811. The three items are in good condition, lightly aged and worn and folded for postage. The last two show slight evidence of the breaking of the wafer, and the last has minor traces of brown paper mount. All three are bifoliums, and all are signed ‘James Mackintosh’.

[Croquet in the Raj.] Anonymous nineteenth-century manuscript poem titled ‘Lines on a picture of “Croquet at Materan” [Matheran hill station] by a Cynic.’ With cartoon of bewhiskered man behind mask of comedy.

Author: 
Croquet in the Raj [Matheran hill station; British India; Edward Lear (1812-1888)]
Croquet in the Raj
Croquet in the Raj
Publication details: 
No date (mid-Victorian). On ‘J WHATMAN’ laid paper.
£180.00
Croquet in the Raj
Croquet in the Raj

Although there is no clear connection, the present unpublished poem dates from around the same time as Edward Lear was drawing watercolours in the place referred to in it. Vidya Dehejia’s‘Impossible Picturesqueness / Edward Lear’s Indian Watercolours, 1873-1875’ (1989) describes how Lear visited ‘The two small hill-stations of Matheran and Mahabaleshwar near Bombay’. Of the former Lear wrote: ‘Matheran by the bye, has most probably been the original Eden - I don’t mean the first Lord Auckland, - but Paradise -’.

[British India; Edwardian Raj; Indian finances; Edward Broome, civil engineer; Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff; William Martin Wood, editor of Times of India, founder and editor of Bombay Review.] Five galley proofs of articles by Wood, on Indian topics.

Author: 
[British India; the Edwardian Raj; Indian finances; Edward Broome; Sir Colin Scott-Moncrieff; William Martin Wood (1828-1907), editor of Times of India, founder and editor of Bombay Review]
Publication details: 
One item from ‘Allen’s Indian Mail’, [28 March 1887]. Three items marked as from the periodical ‘India’, [1902], 1903 and 1906. Another ‘Reprinted from “INDIA,” August 16, 1901.’
£320.00

Five galley-proofs of articles written during the high-point of the Raj by leading Victorian journalist in India W. Martin Wood (editor of the Times of India, founder and editor of the Bombay Review). Ephemeral items, creased and worn, but with text clear and entire. ONE: Headed ‘ALLEN’S INDIAN MAIL / THE LATE MR. EDWARD BROOME, C.E. / Mr. M. Martin Wood writes to us as follows: -’. Sixty-two lines in small print follow, beginning: ‘Some little time back your “Domestic Occurrences” contained the name of Mr.

[British India; Edwardian Raj; Indian finances; Edward Broome, civil engineer; William Martin Wood, editor of Times of India, founder and editor of Bombay Review.] Five galley proofs of articles by Wood, on Indian topics.

Author: 
[British India; the Edwardian Raj; Indian finances; Edward Broome; William Martin Wood (1828-1907), editor of Times of India, founder and editor of Bombay Review]
Publication details: 
One item from ‘Allen’s Indian Mail’, [28 March 1887]. The other ‘Reprinted from “INDIA,” August 16, 1901.’
£320.00

Two galley-proofs of articles by leading Victorian journalist in India W. Martin Wood (editor of the Times of India, founder and editor of the Bombay Review). Ephemeral items, creased and worn, but with text clear and entire. ONE: Headed ‘ALLEN’S INDIAN MAIL / THE LATE MR. EDWARD BROOME, C.E. / Mr. M. Martin Wood writes to us as follows: -’. Sixty-two lines in small print follow, beginning: ‘Some little time back your “Domestic Occurrences” contained the name of Mr. Edward Broome, Civil Engineer, as having died at Southport, something under 60 years of age.

[Lord Elphinstone [John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone], Governor of Madras and Bombay.] Autograph Signature (‘Elphinstone’) and valediction to letter.

Author: 
Lord Elphinstone [John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone] (1807-1860), Scottish soldier, Conservative politician and colonial administrator, successively Governor of Madras and Bombay
Elphinstone
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£25.00
Elphinstone

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. In good condition, lightly aged, with paper from mount on reverse. Folded once. On 6 x 10 cm piece of paper, cut from conclusion of letter. Good firm signature. Reads: ‘[...] European troops / [...] quartered them. / Yours sincerely / Elphinstone’. See image.

[‘Theatre Royal Darwar’, 1858: British amusements during the Indian Mutiny.] Seven items relating to the ‘Corps Dramatique’ of ‘Mrs. Comfit’: four handbills and three manuscript items, incl.2 poems and drawing of castigating Englishwoman. See Image.

Author: 
‘Theatre Royal Darwar’, ‘Opera Comique d’Arwar’, ‘Mrs. Comfit & Co’ [Dharwar, Bombay Presidency, India [now Dharwad, Karnataka]; Indian Mutiny; the Raj; East India Company; British India]
darwar
Publication details: 
Three of the eight items dated to 1858, and with the same date on one of the mounts; all from Dharwar, Bombay Presidency, India [now Dharwad, Karnataka].
£750.00
darwar

An interesting and evocative collection of ephemeral material, casting light on the social activities and entertainments of the British in India in the last months of the Indian Mutiny, also the year of the dissolution of the East India Company. No other record of this amateur ‘Corps Dramatique’, or of its conductor ‘Mrs. Comfit’, has been discovered.

[R.H. Benson, priest; Girls' School in India] Autograph Letter Signed R.M. Benson about his Society organising a Superior Girls School in Bombay, asking Madam his correspondent's, help in finding a suitable Headmistress.

Author: 
R.M. Benson [Richard Meux Benson (1824 – 1915), priest in the Church of England and founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist.]
Publication details: 
Cowley St John Oxford, 15 Sept. 1875.
£80.00

Four pages, 12mo, bifolium, some faint staining, text clear and complete. I hope you will excuse my troubling you, but as you are often corresponding with ladies of a literary turn, it has occurred to me that you might be able to help me to find what I want. Our Society is just organising a Superior Girls School in Bombay. We want a throughly ladylike person to be the Head of it, a good Churchwoman & an efficient teacher. It would rank in England as a Superior Middle Class School. | If you happen to know of any suitable person I should be very glad to open up some negotiation with her.

[N.C. Daruwalla; booklet] Bombay as an Educational Centre

Author: 
N.C. Daruwalla
bombay
Publication details: 
The Minerva Publishing CompanyLtd, London, [1921?]. See image.
£45.00
bombay

Small booklet, 24pp., 16mo, small wormhole, through blank space of text, , rust around staple, punch-hole slightly affecting the text characteristic of material from the papers formerly held at the headquarters of the National Indian Association and the Northbrook Society, 21 Cromwell Road, later by its former Warden, Roland Knaster. Scarce. One other copy traced, in the National Library of Wales.

[ The Imperial Institute, London. ] Galley proofs of address by W. Martin Wood, with manuscript heading: 'On occasion of the reading of a paper on "the Imperial Institute & its advantages to India" by General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh K.C.S.I. [...]'.

Author: 
The Imperial Institute (established 1887), later Commonwealth Institute; East India Association; 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition; Sir Richard Temple; W. Martin Wood; Sir Orfeur Cavenagh
Publication details: 
'[...] before the East India Association. Sir Richard Temple in the chair'. [ The Imperial Institute, London. Circa 1887. ]
£80.00

Printed in a single column on one side of a piece of 64 x 15 cm piece of paper. Aged and worn, with a couple of holes at head causing loss to eight lines of text. Full heading in manuscript: 'On occasion of the reading of a paper on "the Imperial Institute & its advantages to India" by General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh K.C.S.I. before the East India Association. Sir Richard Temple in the chair'.

Serious Reflections and other Contributions. By the late George Aberigh [sic] Mackay, under the nom de plume of Our Political Orphan.

Author: 
'Our Political Orphan', i.e. George Robert Aberigh-Mackay (1841-1881), Professor of English Literature in Delhi College, tutor to the Raja of Rutlam, and principal of the Rajkumar College at Indore
Publication details: 
Bombay: Bombay Gazette Steam Press, Rampart Row, Fort. [ India. ] 1881.
£280.00

[3] + 306pp., 12m. In original printed grey cloth. In fair condition, on aged paper, in worn and damp-stained binding. Small ownership signature of 'Colonel Hag. R.A.' at head of title page, and stamp on front pastedown of booksellers 'Thacker & Co. Ld., Bombay.' Uncommon: only four copies recorded on COPAC. Forty essays published between 16 February and 5 December 1860. The main body (pp.1-248) consists of 33 essays of political gossip, under the same title as the book: 'Some Serious Reflections'. Essays 34 to 40 follow, separately listed in the 'Contents': 'The Teapot Series.

Autograph Letter Signed ('David Pollock') from the future Sir David Pollock, Chief Justice of Bombay, to John Silk Buckingham, regarding the British and Foreign Institute, and a controversy in The Times.

Author: 
Sir David Pollock (1780-1847), Chief Justice of Bombay [James Silk Buckingham (1786-1855), author and traveller; the British and Foreign Institute, Hanover Square, London; The Times]
Publication details: 
Monmouth. 30 Ocotber 1843.
£80.00

2pp., 12mo. 29 lines of neatly-written text. In very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Addressing his letter to 'J: S: Buckingham Esqre.', Pollock writes that Buckingham's letter, 'enclosing the Rules &c. of the British and Foreign Institute', has been forwarded to him in Monmouth, where he is 'engaged on a long Circuit professionally, which comprehends all South Wales, and the West and South of England'. He is 'on the move continually', without 'time or opportunity to give sufficient consideration to the subject'.

Autograph Note from the Indian 'Merchant Prince' Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy [Jeejeebhoy; Jeejebhoy] to 'Miss Brown', with engraved portrait, and long printed notice of 'The Late Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, Bart.'

Author: 
Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy [Jeejebhoy; Jeejeebhoy] (1783-1859), Bart, of Maragone Castle; Bombay 'Merchant Prince' and philanthropist
Publication details: 
The note from 'Maragone Castle | 23d. April [no year]'. Neither of the other two items with date or place.
£120.00

Note: 1p., 12mo. Creased, and with tear at head, 1 x1/2". Written in the third person, it reads: 'Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy will have much pleasure in complying with Miss Browns wishes by sending her some Flowers tomorrow Evening. | Maragone Castle | 23d. April'. Engraving: The margin has been cut away, but an accompanying printed slip carries the original caption: 'THE LATE | SIR JAMSETJEE JEEJEEBHOY, BART.' A steel engraving from a photograph, showing an old bewhiskered Jejeebhoy seated in robes and hat, with curled slippers, in a carved chair on a Turkey carpet.

Advertisement, with photographic illustrations and diagram, entitled 'The "Bristol" Bombay. Bomber - Transport - Troop Carrier.'

Author: 
The Bristol Bombay Bomber-Transport [Royal Air Force; aviation; aeronautics]
Publication details: 
Temple Press Ltd., Bowling Green Lane, London, E.C.1. 6062-39'. [1939]
£56.00

8vo bifolium: 4 pp. On art paper. Unbound. On aged and creased paper. Clear and complete. Arranged as a magazine article, with the text in two columns. Six photographs of the exterior and interior of the plane. Two diagrams, including one full-page and extremely detailed cross-section, captioned 'The Bristol Bombay Bomber-Transport | (Two 1,010 h.p. Bristol Pegasus XXII motors).'

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mrs Matthews'.

Author: 
Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta
Publication details: 
25 September 1848; 'Bp's Palace | Calcutta'.
£56.00

English ecclesiastic (1778-1858). Two pages, octavo. Creased, and with one edge of verso adhering to leaf from autograph album. 'I hope you will excuse the great liberty I take in asking you to help me a little in finishing the Marbling, Enclosing, Ventilating &c of the Cathedral | I have been robbed of 20,000 by the Union Bank, so that I am compelled to solicit aid from the Congregation & kind friends in my extremity'. Signed 'D Calcutta'.

Syndicate content