BAILLIE, William (1752/3-1799) - photo 1
BAILLIE, William (1752/3-1799) - photo 2
BAILLIE, William (1752/3-1799) - photo 3

BAILLIE, William (1752/3-1799)

Lot 140
13.07.2023 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 44 100
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 992852
Lot 140 | BAILLIE, William (1752/3-1799)
Estimate value
£ 12 000 – 18 000
BAILLIE, William (1752/3-1799)

[Views of Calcutta. Calcutta]: 1794.

A very rare series of Calcutta prints, not in Abbey, the meticulous views showing an almost European city of neo-classical buildings with few native buildings in sight. Baillie shows a very different city from the Daniells' views of Calcutta, a teeming Indian city. The subjects are: 1. View of Esplanade-Row, Calcutta, from the River to the Council-House; 2. North View of Fort William, from the Esplanade; 3. South View of the Council-House and Government-House, Calcutta; 4. View of Tank Square, Calcutta, from the East; 5. Military Orphan School, opposite to Calcutta, for the Children of private Soldiers; 6. South-East View of the New church at Calcutta; 7. General View of Calcutta, taken near the Sluice of Fort William; 8. South-west View of Fort William; 9. North View of the Water Gate and Royal Barracks, Fort William; 10. South View of Calcutta, taken from the Glacis of Fort William; 11. North East View of the Military Orphan House, near Calcutta, for the Children of Officers; 12. View of the East Side of Tank Square, Calcutta.



Born in either 1752 or 1753, William Baillie went to India as a cadet in the Bengal Infantry in 1777, transferring to the Engineers in 1778. In 1786 he started a weekly newspaper, the Calcutta Chronicle, before resigning from the army in 1788 with the intention of becoming an artist. However, in 1792 he became secretary of the Free School Society in Calcutta. In 1793 Baillie outlined his intention to produce a suite of views of Calcutta in a letter to the portrait painter Ozias Humphry, and stated that he was well-versed with aquatints, although none of his other proposed printmaking projects seem to have come to fruition. RBH records only one set of these views selling at auction, although Christie’s did sell another in the Visions of India sale, 10 June 1997, lot 180, which is now in the Caroline Simpson Collection, Museums of History New South Wales. Bobins IV, 1411.



Oblong folio (465 x 550mm). 12 etched and engraved views, all coloured by a contemporary hand and in stiff card mounts (plate 5 faintly creased, plate 7 with very small faint spot in sky, plate 10 with two repaired tears in lower margin one of which into caption and lower left corner with tiny marginal chip, tiny marginal hole in lower margin of plate 11, no title or letterpress probably as issued). Modern red half morocco.





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Place of origin:Northern Europe, India, Asia, Europe, United Kingdom
Auction house category:Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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13.07.2023
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