Lot 1 , Indian / Royal Interest: VERNON & CO. Souvenir, The Imperial Visit to Delhi. Calcutta: Bombay, Vernon & Co, [1912].

Indian / Royal Interest: VERNON & CO. Souvenir, The Imperial Visit to Delhi. Calcutta: Bombay, Vernon & Co, [1912]. the album with 85 individual gelatin silver prints of various sizes on 26 grey heavy card mounts, including a panorama of the Coronation Durbar on five sections, the larger prints mounted mostly one-per-page, others mounted in various patterns, each page with printed tissue interleaves bearing titles and the Vernon & Co. imprint. Original red calf gilt, the covers elaborately bordered in gilt, overall 40 x 52cm
£2,000-3,000
A record of the Coronation Durbar and the tour made by King George V and Queen Mary to Dehli in 1912. This copy was probably given to Sir William Wilson Hunter at Christmas, 1912, by Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, the Maharaja Jam Sahib of Nawanagar (1872-1933), one of the foremost cricket batsmen in England. Ranjitsinhji, as Maharaja and famous international cricketer, played his part in the Dehli celebrations. Ranjitsinhji moved easily between India and Britain, kept a house on the Thames in Middlesex and was very much part of the international set. As a cricketer he was the first Indian to win a Cambridge blue, in 1893, and appeared in four Test series against Australia, playing at his best between 1899 and 1904. He left England in 1904, returning to India, but did play in County cricket in 1912.
Sir William Wilson Hunter KCSI CIE (15 July 1840 – 6 February 1900) was a Scottish historian, statistician, a compiler and a member of the Indian Civil Service.

He is most known for The Imperial Gazetteer of India on which he started working in 1869, and which was eventually published in nine volumes in 1881, then fourteen, and later as a twenty-six volume set after his death.

Condition:
Gilt morocco binding scuffed around the edges of the front board, damaged along the sides of the spine, with further scratching and scuffing to the back, most of the pages with varying degrees of foxing around the edges, title sheets in most cases are now loose, some a little creased but all seem to be present, photographs range in size from 11 x 20cm to 28 x 34cm with one notable panorama titled 'General View at the Durbar Indians collecting dust', which measures 18.5 x 142cm and is torn to the left of one of the sections. Comes with a copy of The Times of India Illustrated Weekly Royal Durbar No.1911.

Sold for £5,000