DORMIEUX, Francois (1772?-1851) - photo 1
DORMIEUX, Francois (1772?-1851) - photo 2
DORMIEUX, Francois (1772?-1851) - photo 3

DORMIEUX, Francois (1772?-1851)

Lot 143
13.07.2023 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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£ 21 420
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 992896
Lot 143 | DORMIEUX, Francois (1772?-1851)
Estimate value
£ 15 000 – 20 000
DORMIEUX, Francois (1772?-1851)

Hindoostany Characters. [?Calcutta]: 1805.

An exceptionally rare work; the only other recorded copy of Francis Dormieux’s self-published Hindoostany Characters is in the British Library. The forty engravings are probably from taken from 'Company School' paintings by contemporary Indian artists, yet charmingly interpreted in a European style. They include representations of a wide array of traditional Indian occupations and types, among them: a sword grinder; a weaver; a tape maker; a fish woman; fakirs; a milk woman; various types of musician; a man cleaning cotton; a house servant; a water carrier; a lapidary; vendors of different foods; snake dancers; a eunuch; a fruit woman; a tailor; blacksmiths; a man making 'hubble bubbles'; a bird catcher, and a Diwan. Loosely enclosed is a manuscript letter headed ‘23 May 1828 ... Beulah, Upper Norwood’, from an unidentified sender (signature indecipherable), addressed to 'Sandy' (Alexander Thoms, presumably), discussing trade with India and a painting of the Hindu god Indra which has recently arrived from the sub-continent, and providing a learned account of Sheetala, goddess of small pox; a wood engraved portrait of whom the author has laid in. The handwriting in the letter does not match that of the captions to Dormieux’s engravings, but the content of the letter suggests that the author was possibly an East India Company employee. Alexander Thoms FRSE (1837-1925) was a 19th/20th century Scottish mineralogist. His collection of rocks and minerals form a core part of the collection within the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow. Around 1854 he went to Bengal in India and spent around three decades there managing tea plantations. Bobins IV, 1219. Not recorded in any other bibliographies.



Octavo (177 x 124mm). Engraved title (blank upper margin torn probably to remove an ownership inscription, not affecting engraving) and 40 engravings of Indian 'types', numbered in the plates 1-40, all finely coloured in a contemporary hand, contemporary manuscript captions in ink, possibly in Dormieux’s hand, beneath each engraving (plate 19 was probably folding, missing the upper part of plate, closed tear into plate with repair in lower blank margin, closed tear into plate 25 with repair in lower blank margin, short closed tear in blank lower margin of plate 10, plates 37 and 40 with blank corners torn, occasional mild spotting, thumb marks to margins). Contemporary green calf, covers bordered with double gilt rule and blind scroll, spine with gilt ruled raised bands, tooled in blind, edges gilt scrolled, turn-ins blind tooled (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: 4pp. manuscript letter from an unidentified sender (dated 23 May 1828 addressed to 'Sandy', presumably;) — Alexander Thoms (engraved armorial bookplate).





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Place of origin:India, Asia
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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