Urdu lithographic printing
Tarikh-i Rajastan [History of Rajasthan]
£1,071
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 8 February 2023 at 10:00 GMT
Description
Lucknow: Nawal Kishore Press, 1905. 2 volumes, folio, contemporary half morocco, rebacked, marbled sides, text in Urdu, lithographed throughout, [2] 9 1-776 781-784 777-780 785-864, [2] 20 936 [12] pp., title-pages printed in red and green, floral borders to chapter headings, 45 lithographic plates (13 folding), bindings worn, contents toned, tears to a few plates (mostly small or closed), a few folding plates with sections detached but present, plates in volume 1 browned, volume 2 title-page repaired at head, pp. 221-224 damp-stained and repaired at foot, pp. 393-6 repaired, small marginal repair to final leaf
Footnote
Note: Imposing and richly illustrated Urdu edition of James Tod's Annals and Antiquities of Rajast'han, originally published in English in 1829-32. The plates include views and portraits of local rulers. The Nawal Kishore Press, founded at Lucknow in 1858 by Hindu entrepreneur Nawal Kishore (1836-1895), 'grew into the largest Indian-owned printing and publishing firm in South Asia. Supported by colonial patronage, the firm published an estimated 5,000 titles in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sanskrit and Hindi during Nawal Kishore's lifetime, while it also served as an intellectual hub for scholars, poets and literati. As one observer noted: "No other press in India was fortunate to have such a large number of huffaz, scholars, historians, writers and poets as were gathered simultaneously at this press"' (Ulrike Stark, 'Calligraphic Masterpiece, Mass-Produced Scripture: Early Qur'an Printing in Colonial India', in Reese, ed., Manuscript and Print in the Islamic Tradition, 2002, p. 158).