Item #JLR0791 Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme. Thomas Williamson, Captain, illust. Samuel Howitt.
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme
Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme

Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. . . The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme

Oriental field sports; being a complete, detailed and accurate description of the wild sports of the East; and exhibiting, in a novel and interesting manner, the natural history of the elephant, the rhinoceros, the tiger, the leopard, the bear, the deer, the buffalo, the wolf, the wild hog, the jackall, the wild dog, the civet, and other undomesticated animals: as likewise the different species of feathered game, fishes, and serpents. The whole interspersed with a variety of original, authentic, and curious anecdotes, which render the work replete with information and amusement. The scenery gives a faithful representation of that picturesque country, together with the manners and customs of both the native and European inhabitants. The narrative is divided into forty heads, forming collectively a complete work, but so arranged that each part is a detail of one of the forty coloured engravings with which the publication is embellished. The whole taken from the manuscript and designs of Captain Thomas Williamson, Who served upwards of Twenty Years in Bengal; the drawings by Samuel Howett, made uniform in size and engraved by the first artists under the direction of Edward Orme. London: Howlett for Thomas M‘Lean, 1819. Second edition.

Oblong broadsheet folio (17 13/16” x 22 7/16”, 453mm x 570mm): binder’s blank, π-4π1 1-751, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 79 leaves, pp. [4] (title, blank, dedication, blank) i ii [2] (list of plates, blank) 1-146 [4] (4pp. index). [=viii, 146, iv] With a pochoir illustrated-title and 40 hand-colored aquatint-engraved plates.

Bound in late-XIXc green panelled morocco by Pfister Co. (their ink-stamp to the verso of the front free end-paper). In the corners, a stag, a fox, a lion and an elephant all gilt. On the spine, five raised bands. Title (“WILD/ SPORTS/ OF THE/ EAST”) gilt to the second panel, author gilt to the fourth, imprint gilt to the tail. Gilt rolls to the turn-ins. Cream watered-silk end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt.

Sunning to the spine and peripheries. A little rubbing at the hinges, and along the peripheries. Fore-corners bumped. Evenly tanned, with offsetting at the plates. Tears to the edges of the leaves and plates, some repaired, seldom if ever affecting text or image. Lower fore-corner of leaf 12 restored (not affecting the text).


Thomas George Williamson (ca. 1759–1817) served as an officer in the Bengal army of the British East India Company whose career was cut short for publishing in a newspaper his view of military policy. As such, he occupied a liminal position in British India, which allowed him to make rather more interesting observations than many of his co-evals (e.g., Cornwallis). Oriental field sports, first published in 20 parts in 1807 (reissued in 1808, and, per Tooley, “greatly inferior), is, as the long title suggests, an ambitious work that hazards far-reaching observations about Indian natural history, landscape and culture. Samuel Howitt (1756/7–1822) specialized in the illustration of animals; the pochoir (i.e., stencil-painted) title of a recumbent tiger is an emblem of British books on India.

Bibliographers do not generally (Abbey notes the Young imprint) record the present edition, which has come to market with imprints of Orme, Young and McLean as here. The watermarks (seemingly to the text only) date to 1817 and 1818.

Frank J. Pfister (ca. 1853–1935) established a book-binding firm in New York in the late XIXc, at times working with Alfred William Launder, the Metropolitan Museum’s first bookbinder.

Cf. Abbey, Travel 427 (first edn.); Nissen, ZBI 4416 (first edn.); Schwerdt II p. 298 (first edn.), Tooley 508 (first edn.).

Item #JLR0791

Price: $25,000

Add to Cart Ask a Question Add to Saved Items
See all items in Animal, India, Sporting