£1,638
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 725
Auction: 8 February 2023 at 10:00 GMT
[The Unveiling of Photography, or Principles of Photography]. Aligarh: Matba' Faiz-i 'Am. c.1895. 8vo, original pictorial wrappers, [2] 4 185 pp., illustration of a lady in British dress operating a camera to front cover, illustrations of photographic apparatus in text, Urdu-English glossary and 5 pp. advertisements to rear, authorial ink-stamp ('H. M. Ibrahim, Aligarh') incorporating possible autograph signature to rear wrapper, browning, marginal worming very occasionally encroaching on text-panel to minimal effect on text, stitching partially perished but binding remaining sound, remnants of paper spine-covering (with red linen webbing remaining), wrappers marked, purchase ink-stamp dated 1945 to front wrapper, pp. 103/4 with transverse closed tear, paper erosion to foot of gutter of last 9 leaves not affecting text.
Together with 2 similar works, both in Urdu, lithographically printed:
Mirza Rahim Beg, Naghmat Sitar [Melody of the Sitar], Lahore, c.1880 (8vo, stitched in contemporary marbled wrappers, [2] 181 [1] pp., full-page illustrations of sitars throughout);
[Gunnery], Armourer Trainees Notes. [No place, no date but c. 1935] (10 parts in 1 volume, numbered 1-7 but including duplicates of parts 2, 4 and 7, 8vo, contemporary half cloth, text in Urdu and English, 37, 25, 25, 29, 32, 32, 68, 18, 28, 28 pp. (headings comprise: Rifle No. 1 Mk III; Ordnance M. L. 3-Inch Mortar; ditto; Pistol Signal No. 1 MK. III; Mounting Tripod 30'3 M.G. MK IV; ditto; Gun Machine [sic] Lewis 303 MKI; Definition of Military Small Arms; Gun Machine Vickers 303-in Mk. I; ditto)
Note:
A remarkable artefact of the spread of photography as a popular pastime in 19th-century India. To judge from the cover illustration (and a further illustration on page 63) photography was imagined at least in some circles as an especially female pursuit. The author is named on the title-page as one Hafiz Muhammad Ibrahim. No other copy traced.