SAKOONTALA; OR, THE LOST RING; AN INDIAN DRAMA
KALIDASA
Hertford: Stephen Austin, 1855. First Edition Small quarto (6-1/2" x 8-1/2") bound in later 3/4 dark blue morocco. Translated from the Sanskrit by Monier Williams. Each page has a color-printed decorative border, and there are a number of other color decorations in the text including full-page plates. Handsome book that McLean (VICTORIAN BOOK DESIGN, pp. 172-73) describes as "the most lavish of the Oriental illuminated books.... The borders on ordinary pages are printed in four colours: there is a title-page, at the end of the Introduction, of extraordinary richness, and numerous other decorations and borders printed in colours.... Mr. Stephen Austin was able to achieve, by letter press, results indistinguishable from chromolithography." Light rubbing to joints and corners. Near Fine Later 3/4 dark blue morocco (Item ID: 004332)
$600.00