Set of Four Prints Portraying Occupations

a) A Man of Distinction in his Family Dress
1804
Hand-coloured stipple engraving on paper
Without mount: 12.9 x 9.6 in (33 x 24.5 cm)
With mount: 18.9 x 15.6 in (48.2 x 39.8 cm)

"Consisting of a Dootee, a subsitute for drawers, bound round his loins, and a Doubagh (or kind of a mantle) thrown over his shoulders. In his habit he eats and performs his devotions and domestic occupations. The Jamah, or long robe, often introduced in other parts of this work, is the full dress, and seems to have been borrowed from the Mussulmans".

Plate 29 from Frans Balthazar Solvyns, The Costume of Hindostan: Elucidated by Sixty Coloured Engravings; with Descriptions in English and French, taken in the years 1798 and 1799, London: Edward Orme, 1804.

b) Beeshnub, Worshipper of Vishnoo the preserving attribute of the deity
1804
Hand-coloured stipple engraving on paper
Without mount: 12.9 x 9.6 in (33 x 24.5 cm)
With mount: 18.9 x 15.6 in (48.2 x 39.8 cm)

"At some of their religious ceremonies, they receive the history of their God and his family. Their musical instruments, the Baunk, Mirden, and Kirtaul, are played on at intervals; and the audience, according to the subject, are exalted with joy or depressed with grief, and weep, prostrating, themselves on the ground, embracing the reciting Vishnoo, and depositing money at his feet".

Plate 42 from Frans Balthazar Solvyns, The Costume of Hindostan: Elucidated by Sixty Coloured Engravings; with Descriptions in English and French, taken in the years 1798 and 1799, London: Edward Orme, 1804

c) A Sircar
1804
Hand-coloured stipple engraving on paper
Without mount: 12.9 x 9.6 in (33 x 24.5 cm)
With mount: 18.9 x 15.6 in (48.2 x 39.8 cm)

"The Sircar is an underling to the Bannyan; his business in Bengal is to pay for the necessaries of housekeeping, or in the service of merchants and tradesmen, to buy and sell merchandise. The general custom is for the Sircar to enjoy his wages paid him by his master, while all gain, or customary drawback, profits, pilferings, &c. go to the Bannyan. These servants or officers are peculiar to the Europeans".

Plate 13 from Frans Balthazar Solvyns, The Costume of Hindostan: Elucidated by Sixty Coloured Engravings; with Descriptions in English and French, taken in the years 1798 and 1799, London: Edward Orme, 1804.

d) A Sircar: Dressed in a courta; and an eklie over his shoulders
1804
Hand-coloured stipple engraving on paper
Without mount: 12.9 x 9.6 in (33 x 24.5 cm)
With mount: 18.9 x 15.6 in (48.2 x 39.8 cm)

"This dress is of Mahommedan origin, but much used at present by the Hindoos. A Hindoo may be distinguished in this dress, the Ungah, Ulkaluck, & c. by having the opening on the right breast, while the Mahommedans wear it on the left. On the hand of the figure represented in the Plate, is a bracelet of silver, of its proper size, as proportioned to his stature. Men of distinction have them of gold, sometimes richly ornamented with precious stones".

Plate 30 from Frans Baltazar Solvyns, The Costume of Hindostan: Elucidated by Sixty Coloured Engravings; with Descriptions in English and French, taken in the years 1798 and 1799, London: Edward Orme, 1804

Frans Baltazar Solvyns
Belgian marine artist Frans Balthazar Solvyns lived in Calcutta between 1791 and 1803 and is considered one of the earliest printmakers in India, besides Thomas Daniell. During his time in India, he documented 18th-century Indian culture and habitats, including the people, their occupations, festivals and religious customs.

Solvyns, residing in Calcutta from 1791 until 1803, produced a remarkable series of engravings depicting the people and culture he observed. First published in Calcutta in 1796 and 1799, and then in a four volume edition, Les Hindous, published in Paris, 1808-12.

(Set of four)

These works will be shipped unframed

NON-EXPORTABLE

This lot will be shipped in "as is" condition. For further details, please refer to the images of individual lots as reference for the condition of each lot.