Set of Two Books on Durbar

a) Mortimer Menpes, The Durbar, London: Adam and Charles Black, 1903

100 colour plates with tissue guards; publisher's deluxe binding of ivory cloth with elaborate decorations in gilt, red and blue on the upper cover and spine, the decoration featuring golden peacocks and a flowering tree, also lettered in gilt on both cover and spine, top edge gilt
11 x 9 in (27.5 x 22.5 cm)

943rd from a limited edition of 1000

Documented through the paintings and words of spectators Mortimer and Dorothy Menpes, The Durbar is an illustrated record of the festivities during King Edward VII???s crowning as the Emperor of India in 1903. The historic occasion, which was presided over by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, was the second Delhi Durbar organised by the British Empire. A meticulously planned ceremony that spread over two whole weeks, the Durbar was an event of unmatched grandeur ??? far more magnificent than its predecessor in 1877 or the final one held in 1911.

In the book, British artist and printmaker Mortimer Menpes captures the lavish pageantry of this historic event through a series of carefully painted illustrations. Comprising a range of subjects from portraits of attendees to elaborate military drills and parades, the illustrations in The Durbar are not only impressive in style, but also serve as an invaluable account of British Raj at its peak.

Menpes was a British artist and illustrator, born in Australia; his daughter, Dorothy Menpes, wrote the text to this work. A. & C. Black published ninety-two 20/- (20 shillings) series of Colour Books between 1901 and 1921. The Edwardian period was, perhaps, the peak time for book illustrations as, although photography was well established, the black and white images could not match the brilliance of Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac and their contemporaries for colour illustrations. The A. & C. Black's 20/- series used water-colour artists and was the first to use the new "three colour" process for colour plates. The books were lavish in their use of colour illustrations with most volumes having 70 or more colour plates.

b) John Fortescue, Narrative of the Visit to India of their Majesties King George V and Queen Mary and of the Coronation Durbar held at Delhi, 12th December 1911, London: Macmillan & Co., 1912

viii, 324 pages, frontispiece, 31 plates, 1 plan; original decorated cloth and spine, top edges gilt
9 x 6 in (22.5 x 15 cm)

(Set of two)

NON-EXPORTABLE