Estimate: | £200 - £300 |
Hammer price: | £320 |
[BUTLER, John (1809-74)]. A Sketch of Assam: with Some Account of the Hill Tribes. By an Officer in the Hon. East India Company's Bengal Native Infantry in Civil Employ. With Illustrations from Sketches by the Author. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1847. 8vo (209 x 135mm). Folding map, 15 coloured lithographed plates only (of 16, lacking the "Buffalo Shooting in Assam" plate), illustrations (folding map torn with severe loss [i.e. most lacking], lacking uncoloured plate, mainly marginal spotting, staining and browning throughout, a few plates detached or loose). Contemporary pictorial calf with mounted elephants stamped on both covers, marbled endpapers (heavily rubbed and scuffed, spine defective, inner hinges split). Provenance: From the Collection of the late Seymour Stein (1942-2023); modern slip with the author's biographical detail from V. C. P. Hodson's "List of Bengal Officers" tipped onto the front pastedown; photocopied page from an old bookseller's catalogue (1988) loosely-inserted. FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, the front free endpaper inscribed, "Presented to Ja. Butler by his affectionate Brother, the Author." Abbey Travel 471; Bobins Colour Plate Books I, 227; Yakushi B650.