India. Photographs and Drawings of Historical Buildings

William Griggs, India. Photographs and Drawings of Historical Buildings. 100 Plates Reproduced by W. Griggs. From the Collection in the Late Office of Curator of Ancient Monuments in India, London: Griggs, 1896

pp. 10, [4], [2], [2], [2], [2], [2], [2], [2], [2], 100 plates with short introductory texts at beginning of each "chapter"; overall, there are 49 gorgeous plates in chromolithography, including gold printing, of which 9 are folding out; the black and white plates are photographs of monuments, and are depicting artefacts, or are architectural plans, drawings and sections (again, many of which are folding out); the bulk plates (about 70) are connected to Islamic art and architecture; rebound in full leather
15 x 11 in (37.5 x 27.5 cm)

First edition of one of the most splendid documentations of the architectural and sculptural wealth of medieval India, including an entire chapter on Golden temple, with the study of architectural details of Golden temple done for the first time.

William Griggs (1832-1911) was a photographer, inventor of an advanced chromolithography known as photo-chromolithography. He was associated with the India Office and made outstanding and very expensive book productions for which he produced coloured illustrations including many works about Indian and Oriental artifacts.

'In 1855 he was selected to be technical assistant to the reporter on Indian products and director of the Indian Museum, then in the India House, Leadenhall Street....He also devised a practicable colour photolithographic process, by first printing from a photolithographic transfer a faint impression on the paper to serve as a "key", separating the colours on duplicate negatives by varnishes, then photolithographing the dissected portions on stones, and finally registering and printing each in its position and particular colour, with the texture, light, and shade of the original' (ODNB).

His unique printing technique was used in John Forbes Watson's The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India (1866); this was followed by those illustrating Tree and Serpent Worship in India (1868), by James Fergusson.

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