Oriental Field Sports; Being a Complete, Detailed, and Accurate Description of the Wild Sports of the East. 2 Volume Set.

Thomas Williamson; Samuel Howett.

London : H.R. Young, 1819

4to. 2 volumes. 41 pl. of 42. Bound in full later red Moroccan leather by Bayntun Binders of Bath. Gilt lettering to spine. Gilt tooling and boards. AEG. 5 raised bands. Fine bindings and cover. Rubbing. Spotting to plates.  Small chip loss to tail of Volume I. Upper front board of Volume II starting.  Lacking frontis to Volume II.  Duplicate of plate 4 in place of Plate 2.  Schwerdt II.299; Tooley 510; Czech p228; Mellon, Sporting and Animal Prints pp. 202-3. Prideaux 281-83. 

The second edition of the finest book ever published on Indian sport and one of the great plate books of the period. Two cheaper editions published in 1807 and 1808 were both reduced in size. 

Williamson served in a British regiment in Bengal and was an avid sportsman while there.  After being recalled to England, Williamson's knowledge of wild life and Oriental sports come to the notice of Orme, who contracted this present work from 1805-1807. The painter Samuel Howitt was hired to prepare finished watercolors based on Williamson's original sketches during his time in India. The result was "the most beautiful book on Indian sport in existence" (Schwerdt).

The Preface states that the work "is offered to the public as depicting the Manners, Customs, Scenery, and Costume of a territory now intimately blended with the British Empire, and of such importance to its welfare, as to annex a certain degree of consequence to every publications, that either exhibits, or professes to impart, a knowledge of whatever may hitherto have been concealed, or that remains unfolded to our view." 

This is an oversized or heavy book that requires additional postage for international delivery outside of Canada and the US.