“A WORK MORE SPLENDID… IN ITS DECORATIONS WE HAVE SELDOM SEEN”: EXCEPTIONAL PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION FIRST EDITION OF FORBES’ ORIENTAL MEMOIRS, WITH BEAUTIFUL HAND-COLORED PLATES

(INDIA) (AFRICA) (SOUTH AMERICA) FORBES, James. Oriental Memoirs: Selected and Abridged from a Series of Familiar Letters Written During Seventeen Years Residence in India: Including Observations on Parts of Africa and South America. London: White, Cochrane (T. Bensley, printer), 1813. Four volumes. Large quarto, contemporary full red straight-grain morocco rebacked with original elaborately gilt-decorated spines neatly laid down, covers elaborately decorated in gilt and blind, all edges gilt.

First edition of this splendid richly illustrated work on India, with frontispiece portrait and 93 engraved and lithographed plates, including 28 hand-colored natural history plates. Presentation/association copy inscribed by Forbes on the half title of Volume I to his cousin John Underwood, founder of the first hospital for Indians in Madras: “to John Underwood Esq from his affec. cousin the author.” Magnificently bound for presentation in full elaborately gilt-decorated morocco.

James Forbes arrived in India from England in 1765 as a writer for the East India Company. During his 17-year stay there, “being a good draughtsman and keen observer, [he] had filled 152 folio volumes (52,000 pages) with sketches and notes on the fauna, flora, manners, religions, and archaeology of India” (DNB). These sketches and notes became the basis for Oriental Memoirs, which were “selected and arranged from a series of familiar letters… including observations on parts of Africa and South America” (Prideaux). “The drawings and collections of Mr. Forbes seem almost to exceed the powers of human industry and perseverance” (Allibone I, 611). “My friends in India,” Forbes recounts, “were happy to enlarge my collections… the Hindoo often brought a bird or insect for delineation; the Brahmin supplied specimens of fruit and flowers from his enclosures.” The lovely hand-colored plates are primarily those depicting flora and fauna. “A work more splendid or more complete in its decorations we have seldom seen” (Abbey). Bound with half titles. Abbey Travel 436. Prideaux, 293-94. Anker 148. See Tooley 172. Recipient John Underwood (1767-1839) founded the first hospital for Indians in Madras. He served with the East India Mercantile Marine as a ship’s surgeon before joining the Madras Army where he also served as a surgeon. In 1797 Underwood applied for a piece of land at Purawalkum as a site for a hospital for indigent Indian sick. After initial objections from the East India Company, the “Native Infirmary” was finally approved and founded in 1799, and combined in 1809 with the “Native Hospital and Poor Fund” in the institution known as the Monegar Choultry. This institution served the needs of the sick and was used for teaching medical school students as well. John was the son of the renowned physician Michael Underwood (1737-1820).

Text and plates clean and fine, hand-coloring vivid and finely detailed. A beautiful presentation/association copy of this beautiful and richly illustrated work in fine condition.