Belnos (Mrs S[ophia] C[harlotte]). The Sundhya or the Daily Prayers of the Brahmins. Illustrated in a Series of Original Drawings from Nature, demonstrating their Attitudes and Different Signs and Figures performed by them during the Ceremonies of their Morning Devotions, and likewise their Poojas. Together with a Descriptive Text annexed to each Plate, and the Prayers from the Sanscrit, translated into English, 1st edition, [London: Day & Son], 1851, hand-coloured lithographic vignette title-page, 24 hand-coloured lithographic plates, preface leaf, 20 leaves of descriptive text (of 21: lacking text-leaf for plate 23, 'Punch Agnee'), pencilled numbering to upper outer corners, most plates and text-leaves with nicks and closed tears to edges (with amateur clear-tape repairs verso; text-leaves with concomitant staining visible recto), text-leaves toned, marginal spotting to most plates, various finger-marks and other blemishes, vignette title-page and plate 8 somewhat browned, plate 7 with loss to upper outer corner, typescript list of contents tipped to upper inner corner of title-page, similar replacement for the missing text-leaf for plate 23 tipped to relevant plate, all text and plates loose in modern portfolio (with no sewing-holes or evidence of disbinding), large folio (63 x 45.6 cm) (Qty: 1) Abbey Travel 477; Lipperheide (1965) Ld 37; not in Colas or Tooley. Rare. 'Relatively little is known about Mrs. Belnos. Her husband, Jean-Jacques Belnos, was a French miniaturist and lithographer, who had travelled to India in 1807, and established a practice in Calcutta as a painter of miniatures and portraits of the British, a business which his widow seems to have continued following his death' (De Silva, Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c.1785-1845, pp. 106-7). Abbey speculates that Mrs Belnos was Indian, but she was in fact almost certainly the daughter of William Moore assistant surgeon in the Bengal army. This seems to be her second and last published work, following Twenty four Plates Illustrative of Hindoo and European Manners in Bengal, which appeared in 1832. Another copy was sold in these rooms on 20 January 2021 (lot 5).
Belnos (Mrs S[ophia] C[harlotte]). The Sundhya or the Daily Prayers of the Brahmins. Illustrated in a Series of Original Drawings from Nature, demonstrating their Attitudes and Different Signs and Figures performed by them during the Ceremonies of their Morning Devotions, and likewise their Poojas. Together with a Descriptive Text annexed to each Plate, and the Prayers from the Sanscrit, translated into English, 1st edition, [London: Day & Son], 1851, hand-coloured lithographic vignette title-page, 24 hand-coloured lithographic plates, preface leaf, 20 leaves of descriptive text (of 21: lacking text-leaf for plate 23, 'Punch Agnee'), pencilled numbering to upper outer corners, most plates and text-leaves with nicks and closed tears to edges (with amateur clear-tape repairs verso; text-leaves with concomitant staining visible recto), text-leaves toned, marginal spotting to most plates, various finger-marks and other blemishes, vignette title-page and plate 8 somewhat browned, plate 7 with loss to upper outer corner, typescript list of contents tipped to upper inner corner of title-page, similar replacement for the missing text-leaf for plate 23 tipped to relevant plate, all text and plates loose in modern portfolio (with no sewing-holes or evidence of disbinding), large folio (63 x 45.6 cm) (Qty: 1) Abbey Travel 477; Lipperheide (1965) Ld 37; not in Colas or Tooley. Rare. 'Relatively little is known about Mrs. Belnos. Her husband, Jean-Jacques Belnos, was a French miniaturist and lithographer, who had travelled to India in 1807, and established a practice in Calcutta as a painter of miniatures and portraits of the British, a business which his widow seems to have continued following his death' (De Silva, Colonial Self-Fashioning in British India, c.1785-1845, pp. 106-7). Abbey speculates that Mrs Belnos was Indian, but she was in fact almost certainly the daughter of William Moore assistant surgeon in the Bengal army. This seems to be her second and last published work, following Twenty four Plates Illustrative of Hindoo and European Manners in Bengal, which appeared in 1832. Another copy was sold in these rooms on 20 January 2021 (lot 5).
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
