Beschreibung:

WILLIAM DANIELL (1769-1837) Autograph manuscript of a journal of travels in India, in four notebooks, each with a label on the upper cover inscribed, possibly in Daniell's autograph, 'N o. 1 August 29 t h. 1788 to May 19 t h. 1789', 'N o. 3 July 8 1789 to January 30 1790', 'N o. 6 March 10 to 29 1792' and 'N o. 7 April 9 to July 12 1792' , and three of them inscribed, in autograph, 'W Daniells Journal' or '[Journal of] W Daniell' with dates and places (No. 7, first two words obliterated by labe, No. 3 with dates only), together with rough sketches of an elephant, a landscape, a boat and a minaret on the endpapers of No.1, and of a torso and a profile on the inside upper cover of No.3, altogether approximately 312 pages, 4to, (220 x 167mm - 314 x 201mm), (a number of small marginal tears touching words in Nos 1 and 6, fragment torn from margin of one page in No. 1 with loss of a few words, waterstains on outer nine leaves of No.3, no effect on legibility), No. 1 in contemporary linen binding (slightly worn), Nos 3 and 7 in contemporary marbled paper (No. 3 worn and slightly soiled), No. 6 sewn in mid nineteenth-century paper. AN IMPORTANT AND LARGELY UNPUBLISHED RECORD OF THE TRAVELS OF THOMAS AND WILLIAM DANIELL IN INDIA; THE ONLY SURVIVING MANUSCRIPTS OF THEIR INDIAN TOURS The journals of William Daniell provide a detailed and substantial description of his sketching tours around both northern and southern India with his uncle Thomas ('Un') - the tours which formed the basis for their later publications, and beyond those, contributed to a whole British perception of India. The importance of this manuscript journal can be assessed by reference to other writings by the Daniells. These include the letterpress which accompanied the 144 aquatints of Oriental Scenery (published 1795-1808), the text of which, probably composed by Thomas, offers a commentary on the places and buildings depicted. Of a similar nature is the text accompanying the plates of A Picturesque Voyage to India by the Way of China (1810). The extensive text of the six volumes of the Oriental Annual (1834-9) was actually written by the Reverend Hobart Caunter, though in close collaboration with William Daniell and drawing on his memories of India. Fascinating as they are, in revealing the Daniells' considered ideas about India, all these texts were written after their return to England and lack the immediacy and diversity of information found in the present journal. Other known primary sources include a letter written by Thomas Daniell to Ozias Humphrey on 7 November 1788 whilst he and William were travelling near Patna, published by Evan Cotton in Bengal Past and Present , and a letter from William to his mother, written at Bhagalpur on 30 July 1790, which survives in a paraphrase in Joseph Farington's diary. These letters give us glimpses of the Daniells' thoughts, movements and working methods while they were in India; but by comparison with the journal they are of course very brief, and in both cases the original manuscript is lost. The numbering of the four volumes of the journals indicates that there were originally at least another three volumes, but only these are known to survive. They are, in addition, substantially unpublished: the journals were unknown until 1932 when extracts, selected from these four volumes by Martin Hardie and Muriel Clayton, were published in Walker's Quarterly (nos 35-36) - a publication which has apparently formed the basis for all subsequent scholarship. However, sixty per cent remains unpublished, including numerous passages casting light on the methods and dating of their work. The Daniells left England on 7 April 1785, when William was fifteen, and arrived in Calcutta via Canton early in 1786. For nearly two years they based themselves in the city and established themselves as engravers, publishing a series of twelve aquatints of views around Calcutta, and collecting funds for their projected travels through the subcon