A Voyage to Bengalla

Los 104
05.02.2026 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
VeranstaltungsortVereinigtes Königreich, London
Aufgeldsee on Website%
ID 1540352
Los 104 | A Voyage to Bengalla
Schätzwert
$ 10 000 – 15 000
BRUTON, William (fl.1630s). Newes from the East-Indies: or, a voyage to Bengalla, one of the greatest Kingdomes under the High and Mighty Prince Pedesha Shassallem…. London: printed by J. Okes and sold by Humphery Blunden, 1638.

First edition of the first account of the English in Bengal. The Huth-Williams-Penrose-Brooke-Hitching copy.

In 1633, one of the early English efforts to establish trade with the Mughal Empire in eastern India set out from Machilipatnam (formerly Masulipatam) in Andhra Pradesh to the state of Orissa (Odisha). William Bruton, a sailor traveling with this mission, spent several months in Odisha—from May to November—during a side journey that formed part of his seven-year service with the East India Company. Bruton recorded many observations during his travels. When he returned to England, he realized that much of what he had noted elsewhere had already been described by others, so he chose to publish only those accounts that offered new information for English readers. He devoted particular attention to the city of Puri (which he calls Jaggarnat after the famous temple there to Lord Jagannath) and illustrated it with both an engraving of one of the processional chariots and a full-page woodcut view of the city. It was in this work that the myth of devotees throwing themselves under the chariot wheels as an act of sacrifice was begun. This myth took a strong hold on the English imagination and is the origin of the word “juggernaut.”

This is the only 17th century edition of his work and rare. The records of RBH list only one other copy on the market, the Prideaux copy sold in 1916. ESTC S105960.

Quarto (183 x 140mm). Engraved frontispiece “The Grand Idoll Iagernat”; full-page woodcut view in text (frontispiece with lower corner restored, just touching lower left corner of engraving; some soiling at ends; tiny corner repairs at ends; hole to final text leaf repaired with about 10 letters in neat pen facsimile). Speckled calf by Bedford, morocco spine labels, all edges gilt (spine and edges scuffed); clamshell box. Provenance: Henry A. Huth, 1815-1878 (morocco bookplate) – John Camp Williams, 1859-1929 (leather book label, his sale at Anderson Galleries, New York, 6-8 November 1929, lot 207) –Boies Penrose, 1902-1976 (bookplate, his sale Sotheby’s, 7 June 1971, lot 36) – Franklin Brooke-Hitching (his sale, Sotheby’s, 27 March 2014, lot 187).
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