WELSH, James & Bellina Sophia Maxtone.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Manuscript commonplace book with original drawings. A family commonplace book closely associated with the East India Company officer and author James Welsh, containing a substantial body of original material by Welsh alongside musical, literary, and devotional extracts copied by his daughter, Bellina Sophia Maxtone. Pencil annotation from a later descendant of the Welsh family identify the family members' contributions.The manuscript offers a private counterpart to Welsh's published writings on India and his long career in company service. A drawing attributed to Welsh's only son, William James Welsh, also appears in the volume.The book is illustrated with original drawings, including views and subjects from India, among them a river scene entitled "Female Orphan Asylum at Calcutta", as well as a coloured study of an albatross and pintadoes drawn at sea. Several are by Welsh himself and correspond to images later published in his Military Reminiscences; Extracted from a Journal of Nearly Forty Years' Service in the East Indies, while others remain unpublished, including a watercolour study of a lioness and tiger accompanied by an extract describing Welsh's visit to the Rajah of Coorg and the sketching of the animals.The hand-drawn sea chart attributed to Welsh records the wreck of the East India Company extra ship Travers near Diamond Island, Burma, in 1808, an incident he later described in print. A further drawing of the beach at Waltair (now part of Visakhapatnam) is attri

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