Lot 150

Gentil, [Jean-Baptiste Joseph]

Mémoires de l'Indoustan

Books & Manuscripts

Auction: India in Ink: The Library of Dr Raj Krishna | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 79 to 208

Estimate: £300 - £500

Description

ou l'empire Mogol. Paris: Petit, 1822. First edition, 8vo, contemporary straight-grain red morocco, spine gilt in compartments, each cover gilt with ducal coronet surmounting diamond lozenge enclosing three fleur-de-lys, 469 pp., half-title (with replica of the author's Indian seal), 3 aquatint portrait plates (the author, Nadir Shah and Shuja ud-Daula), aquatint dedication to Shuja ud-Daula, engraved folding map, letterpress table to face p. 384, bookplate ('Ex Museum del Montino'), contemporary ink inscription 'A Son Altesse Royale, Mademoiselle' to front free endpaper verso (obscured with ink wash but remaining legible), initial blank with recent paper reinforcement to one corner on verso apparently where another inscription effaced on recto, blind stamp (Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA) to title-page, plates and map slightly spotted;
Le Bon, Gustave. Les Civilisations de l'Inde. Paris: Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1887. First edition, deluxe issue, one of 15 copies printed on japon, 4to (28.5 x 19cm), contemporary crushed blue morocco gilt by Allô, gilt monogram to centre of each cover, top edge gilt, others untrimmed, vii 743 pp., 7 chromolithographic plates with tissue-guards, map, illustrations from photographs throughout the text (many full-page), private library label (with same monogram as the covers) to front pastedown;
[Soltykoff, Alexis]. Lettres sur l'Inde. Paris: Amyot, 1848. First edition, 8vo (22 x 15cm), later half roan retaining earlier spine, [6] 375 pp., half-title, 32 tinted lithographic plates, lithographic route map, variable spotting, several plates browned;
and 3 others, French accounts of India (6)

Provenance

INDIA IN INK: THE LIBRARY OF DR RAJ KRISHNA

Footnote

Library Hub traces no copies of Mémoires de l'Indoustan in UK libraries, and one copy of Lettres sur l'Inde, at the University of Bristol. Jean-Baptiste Joseph Gentil was a French army officer who served as aide-de-camp to Shuja ud-Daula, Nawab of Oudh (Awadh), negotiating with the British on his behalf after the Battle of Buxar (1764) and remaining at his court for a decade afterwards. During this time he amassed an important collection of Indian miniatures, which on his return to France he deposited at the Bibliothèque du Roi (now the BnF), where it remains to this day.