Lot 120
Oriental languages
Manuscript commonplace book of R. M. Binning, c.1870
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 21 September 2023 at 10:00 BST
Description
4to (19.4 x 15cm), contemporary straight-grain black roan album, rebacked, retaining brass class and catch, signed 'R. M. Binning' on one leaf, contents include:
1) 12 Qajar School gouache roundels of the signs of the Zodiac, each approx. 3.5cm in diameter, clipped retaining Persian captions and mounted, together with a similar large sun emblem in gouache heightened in gilt, 11 x 11cm;
2) 3 Persian calligraphic panels in nastal'iq script, 13 x 8cm, 17.5 x 13cm, and 17 x 11 cm (at intervals through the album);
3) Notes on languages including Hebrew, Kaithi, Avestan, Telugu, Runic, Anglo-Saxon, Sanskrit, Arabic, etc., concerning alphabets, numerals and grammar, in the form of manuscript notes and extracts from printed books or pamphlets, variously mounted direct on album leaves or tipped to stubs;
4) Transcripts of Bible verses in English, with Persian translations, approx. 260 pp.;
5) Transcripts of Qur'anic verses and other maxims in Arabic, with English translations, 16 pp.;
6) 2 Qajar School gouache portraits, depicting a seated warrior and a man smoking a hookah, both approx. 15 x 10cm;
7) Transcripts of Persian poetry, including from Sa'di's Gulistan and Bustan, with English translations, approx. 70 pp., including approx. 14 clippings or whole leaves from decorative Persian manuscripts, mounted;
8) Transcripts of proverbs in Urdu, Hindi, French, Latin, Arabic and Persian, with English translations, approx. 50 pp.;
9) Various mounted chromolithographs, engravings, and albumen-print photographs (from life and from paintings)
Footnote
Note: Robert Blair Munro Binning (1814-1891) was employed by the Madras Civil Service from 1833 until retiring on health grounds in 1861, having held positions including sub-collector of Arcot and magistrate of Chittoor district. He was the author of A Grammar, with a Selection of Dialogues and Familiar Phrases, and a Short Vocabulary in Modern Arabic (1849), and A Journal of Two Years' Travel in Persia, Ceylon, etc. (London, 1857). He was a prolific collector of oriental manuscripts, most of which, including an important 14th-century copy of Biruni's 'Chronology of Ancient Nations', he donated to what is now the University of Edinburgh, where a selection of his notebooks and papers is today also held. His manuscript dictionary of the Deccani language appeared for sale in the US in 2012.