I have here for sale a rare and beautifully illustrated book entitled THE VIEW OF HINDOOSTAN Vol I Western Hindoostan, by Thomas Pennant.  It is a first edition published in 1798 by Henry Hughs.  It has 8 b/w plates and a fold-out map of Hindoostan.  It includes Ceylon too.

Pennant after writing several books on travel around the UK, he conceived the idea of publishing a work on a global scale and set to work on the first two volumes of what was planned to be a fourteen volume series. Each country was to have maps and sketches, colour plates and an account of the country's production with notes on its natural history.   All this was to be gleaned from the writing of others who had seen these places themselves. The first two volumes appeared early in 1798 and covered most of India and Ceylon.  Volumes three and four included the parts of India east of the Ganges, Malaysia, Japan and China but before these were published he suffered a gradual decline in health and vigour and died at Downing, in December 1798, so the 2 volumes on India were the only two published in his lifetime. 

Half brown leather on blue grey marbled hardboards.  Spine has been rebacked with similar leather and a new maroon leather title block with gilt lettering has been attached.  Some tears to the marbled paper and wear to corners.  Speckled page edges and pages are pretty clean throughout.  263 pages plus index.  30 x 24 cm.

We have over 2000 items in our Ebay shop on a range of subjects, so please feel free to have a browse and see if anything else takes your fancy.

Postage will be by Air Mail outside of UK.  If you buy more than one item then the postage cost falls for the second and further items as I will put them into one parcel - so you save money. We wrap and post the parcels on Monday and Tuesday - therefore if you pay before midday on Tuesday we will get it in the postal sacks on Tuesday night, and if it is after that time then it will go into the postal service on the following Monday.