Decorated publisher's cloth binding of George Francklin Atkinson's Curry and Rice

Three-quarter view of the decorated binding and spine of Curry and Rice

Letterpress title page of Curry and Rice by George Francklin Atkinson

Illustrated vignette title page of Curry and Rice showing a woman on horseback

Lithographic plate depicting domestic life at a British station in India

Lithographic plate depicting a camel-drawn carriage in India

Lithographic plate titled Our Departure for Home from Curry and Rice

List of the forty subjects in Curry and Rice

Text page headed Our Bath from Curry and Rice

Detail of the publisher's imprint stamped into the binding of Curry and Rice

1858/1859 · First edition

Curry & Rice on Forty Plates

USD 450

or, The Ingredients of Social Life at “Our Station” in India.London: Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen, n.d. [1859].

Atkinson’s celebrated illustrated satire of British life in India.

One of the classic illustrated books of the British Raj, combining social caricature, humour and acute observation.

Read the illustrated scholarly note accompanying this work.

Description:

Quarto (approx. 29.5 x 22 cm). First edition. Unpaginated. Complete with lithographic tinted additional title page and 39 fine tinted lithograph plates under original tissue guards, each accompanied by a descriptive leaf of satirical text. Bound in the publisher's original vibrant orange/cinnamon cloth, heavily stamped in blind and features elaborate, ornate gilt framing and centerpieces on the front board and spine, executed from a design by the renowned architect Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt. All edges gilt.

Historical Significance:

Produced immediately following the historic uprising of 1857, Atkinson’s work deliberately sought to showcase the lighter, "sunny side" of British colonial life in India to ease an anxious English public. An officer in the Bengal Engineers and a brilliant caricaturist, Atkinson invented the fictional station of "Kabob" to sharply satirise the domestic mundane, eccentricities, and social hierarchies of British administrators, soldiers, and local populations. It stands as one of the ultimate visual records of the lifestyle, pastimes (such as pig-sticking and tiger shooting), and colonial mindsets defining the mid-19th-century British Raj

Provenance: Provenance details available on request.
Condition: Good. Normal signs of ageing and restoration.
Status: Available

Request further informationReference EOB-0039