Lot 90
Taylor, John
Letters on India, Political, Commercial and Military
Auction: India in Ink: The Library of Dr Raj Krishna | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 79 to 208
Description
relative to Subjects Important to the British Interests in the East. Addressed to a Proprietor of East-India Stock. London: for Carpenter and Co., [etc.], 1800. First edition, 4to (26 x 20.5cm), modern tan half calf, [2] i-ii v-xxviii 270 pp. (no pp. iii-iv but none required in register and the pagination evidently incorrect), folding aquatint panorama of Bombay, 2 hand-coloured engraved charts (one folding), hand-coloured engraved folding map, browning, title-leaf mounted on stub, map and charts spotted, small repairs to gutter of prelims [Abbey Travel 423; ESTC T153471];
[Buchanan, Claudius, editor]. The College of Fort William in Bengal. London: for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1805. First edition, 4to (26.4 x 20.8cm), 20th-century half sheep, [8] 240 pp., half-title (2)
Provenance
INDIA IN INK: THE LIBRARY OF DR RAJ KRISHNA
Footnote
John Taylor, author of Letters on India, Political, Commercial and Military, was an officer in the army of the Bombay Presidency. Many of the letters relate to the French expedition to Egypt, in response to which Taylor proposes a British pincer movement combining an amphibious landing at El Qosair on the Red Sea with an Anglo-Russian invasion from the Mediterranean. A further recommends an invasion of Afghanistan (then ruled by Zaman Shah Durrani) as ‘the best security to British India’ and contains a ‘short account of the government of the Seicks [Sikhs], their power, etc’.