India.-

Simpson (William) and Sir John William Kaye.

India Ancient and Modern,

2 vol., chromolithograph dedication, and 50 chromo-lithographed plates mounted on card, a couple with tears in the mount margin, foxing to a few plate guards and of 10 plate margins, 2 plates detached with margin edges chipped with a little loss, contemporary half red morocco, gilt, cloth sides stained, a.e.g., internally very good with binding worn and rubbed, scarce, large folio, 1867

Simpson was sent to India on a roving commission to produce drawings and paintings intended for a large volume to illustrate the subject of India and its people. He spent two and a half years travelling in India from his arrival in Calcutta in October 1859 to his departure from Bombay in February 1862. Places he visited in the north included Lahore, Simla, the upper reaches of the Sutlej as far as Chini (higher than the Frasers had been able to explore), Agra, and Lucknow. "Simpson spent a few weeks in early 1861 with Lord and Lady Canning in Central India. While they were at Jubbulpore, Simpson decided to visit Rajasthan: 'It was rather a wild thing to go off all by myself... The ordinary traveller who "does" India sees Bombay, Calcutta, Benares, Agra, and Delhi, but in the vast spaces between these noted places he sees nothing of. It is in these spaces that the real India exists.' '' (Godrej and Rohatgi).