The griffinage of the Hon. Newman Strange: an Indian story in twenty-one episodes

Thomas Bridges Heathron, The griffinage of the Hon. Newman Strange: an Indian story in twenty-one episodes, each with a chorus "as used in ye oldenne times to carrie on ye plotte," identify the subject, and elaborate each successive incident / by T.B.H., R.A. ; photographed from the original drawings by J. Hogarth, Jun., London: J Hogarth, 1862

25 albumin prints of humorous caricatures [6.5 x 8.5 inches] after the original drawings pasted one to a thick sheet with descriptions on the facing page; bound in brown buckram and leather corners.
11 x 14 in (27.5 x 35 cm)

First edition, very rare, of the published version of The Griffinage, with the original pen and ink drawings reproduced in reduced form as photographs.

Such publications were very expensive and would have had a very small circulation; they are therefore now very rare.

The satirical story is illustrated with albumen prints of the original drawings by Thomas Bridges Heathorn. A "griffin" was a cadet newly arrived in British India, and the griffin of the present story is in the "Thunderers," i.e. the artillery. The story is told largely through pictures and concerns Newman Strange's voyage to India, his adventures on station, his wooing of the "station belle," an episode with the "Sirdar of Jum Jum," and his involvement in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. In the end he marries his "belle," the daughter of "Sir Mango Chutnee Curry Bhat," in a church in the mountains. Each illustration includes an elaborate frame, combining decorative or emblematic elements with vignette scenes of daily life in the Raj. On the title-page (or frontispiece) the letters of "The Griffinage" are made up by "a corps of Indian Jugglers" and snake-charmers. Other vignettes/borders feature a horse being unloaded from a boat, a boar hunt, military formations, men riding elephants, a line of servants bearing dishes for a feast, and camel skeletons in the desert. Drawings of Indian figures demonstrate ethnic stereotypes. (Source: Yale Center of British Art)

NON-EXPORTABLE

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