Lot 2018: FORBES, JAMES. 1749-1819. Oriental Memoirs: Selected and Abridged from a Series of Familiar Letters Written during Seventeen Years Residence in India: Including Observations on Parts of Africa and South America, and a Narrative of Occurrences in Four

Oriental Memoirs: Selected and Abridged from a Series of Familiar Letters Written during Seventeen Years Residence in India: Including Observations on Parts of Africa and South America, and a Narrative of Occurrences in Four India Voyages. London: for the Author by T. Bensley, 1813. 4 volumes. [4], xxiii, [1], 481, [1]; xv, [1], 542; xii, 487; xi, [1], 425, [1], [1] pp. Engraved frontis, 94 engraved plates, and 27 hand-colored plates, some heightened with gum arabic. 4to (314 x 244 mm). Modern cloth. Mostly unopened, toning and foxing mainly to uncolored plates, some scattered foxing to text, some wear to cloth.

First edition. James Forbes was a writer and artist in the employ of the British East India Company. He was sent to India in 1765 and collected many thousands of pages of notes on every aspect of the country including botany, ethnology, and architecture during his long residence. He compiled the present work during his retirement in England.
See illustration.