The Royal Tour in India: A Record of the Tour of T.R.H. The Prince and Princess of Wales in India and Burma, from November 1905 to March 1906
Stanley Reed, The Royal Tour in India: A Record of the Tour of T.R.H. The Prince and Princess of Wales in India and Burma, from November 1905 to March 1906, Bombay: Bennett, Coleman & Co., Times of India Office, 1906
Half-title, title printed in red and black, preface by Sir Walter Lawrence. Profusely illustrated with photographic reproductions throughout, including portraits, processional scenes, landscapes, and architecture; publisher’s deluxe full morocco gilt, upper cover elaborately blocked in gilt with the title and Prince of Wales feathers, spine gilt in compartments, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers.
13 x 10 in (33 x 25 cm)
FROM APOLLO BUNDER TO GOVERNMENT HOUSE: A BOMBAY CHRONICLE OF THE ROYAL TOUR IN INDIA
This handsome and profusely illustrated volume is the official commemorative record of the tour of the Prince and Princess of Wales—later King George V and Queen Mary—through India and Burma between November 1905 and March 1906. Compiled by Stanley Reed, special correspondent of the Times of India, and published in Bombay by Bennett, Coleman & Co., the work documents one of the most spectacular imperial pageants of the Edwardian age.
Of particular significance for the present Bombay-themed sale is the extensive coverage of the city, which served as the ceremonial gateway to the royal progress. The opening section depicts the landing at Apollo Bunder, the formal address at the Bombay Municipal Corporation, the presentation of the richly wrought Bombay Casket, and the passing of the Sailors’ Home. Architectural landmarks including Victoria Terminus, Bombay Cathedral, and the Byculla Club are represented, alongside elite institutions such as the Royal Bombay Yacht Club and Rajkumar College.
Equally striking are the portraits of leading rulers of Western India—the Maharaja of Kolhapur, the Nawab of Junagadh, the Thakur Sahib of Bhavnagar, and the Rao of Cutch—together with formal group photographs taken at Government House in Bombay, offering a rare visual record of the colonial administrative elite in company with India’s princes. Beyond Bombay, the volume extends its visual survey to Udaipur, Jaipur, Bikaner, and Calcutta, portraying receptions, military reviews, and glimpses of the colonial elite at leisure.As both a product of Bombay’s foremost press, the Times of India office, and an ambitious visual chronicle of imperial pageantry, the work stands as a key artefact of early 20th-century Indian photo-publishing. Copies in the richly gilt morocco publisher’s binding, such as the present example, are scarce and highly sought after by collectors of Bombay and Indian princely history alike.
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