DANIELL, Samuel.

£75,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Picturesque Illustration of the Scenery, Animals, and Native Inhabitants, of the Island of Ceylon; Two of the most impressive colour plate books from the Golden Age of aquatint: first edition of Ceylon, bound with the preferred Havell edition of African Scenery, the hand-colouring of which is much richer than in the original edition; according to Tooley it is "extremely rare"- borne out by auction records, showing one copy only, at Sotheby's New York in 1971. Samuel Daniell (1775-1811) was educated at the East India College, Hertford, and trained as an artist under the drawing-master there, Thomas Medland, who was also known as an accomplished aquatinter. "Unable to make a living as a landscape painter in London, Daniell travelled to the Cape of Good Hope in 1799 in the suite of Sir George Yonge, governor and commander-in-chief at the Cape. His subsequent friendship with Lieutenant-General Francis Dundas resulted in his appointment as secretary and draughtsman to a mission to visit the country of the Booshuanas (Bechuanaland) under Mr Truter and Dr Somerville, in October 1801, to purchase cattle to replace those lost in the Cape Frontier War. During the perilous 700 mile trek to Lataku, the seat of King Mooliahaben of the Booshuanas, Daniell made a large number of drawings of the landscape, the wild animals, and the inhabitants of the interior … Daniell returned to England in 1803 and immediately began to work up his drawings for publication in his most important work Afric

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.