Lot 2 , Indian Interest: CAXTON WORKS. Souvenir. 'Kathiawar Tour of His Excellency Sir George Sydenham Clarke, Governor of Bombay, 1910', a leather bound album of photographs by Bourne & Shepherd, presentation copy to Sir Willia

° Indian Interest: CAXTON WORKS. Souvenir. 'Kathiawar Tour of His Excellency Sir George Sydenham Clarke, Governor of Bombay, 1910', a leather bound album of photographs by Bourne & Shepherd, presentation copy to Sir William Hunter from Ranjitsinghi of Nawanagar, the album with 160 individual gelatin silver prints of various, the larger prints mounted mostly one-per-page, others mounted in various patterns, each page with printed interleaves bearing titles, with inscription dated 1911-1912 to W.S. Hunter Esq. from Ranjitsinghi of Nawanagor, Original red calf and cloth, sold with a Christmas card to Sir William Hunter from Thakore Sahib Sir Daulat Singh of Limbdi, Kathiawar, in original envelope postmarked 1911, 47 x 37cm
£1,500-2,000
A fascinating record of the Kathiawar Tour of His Excellency Sir George Sydenham Clarke, Governor of Bombay in 1910. This copy was 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 Tours, and this album was probably one of a few copies commissioned from Caxton Works for presentation to celebrate the Tour. 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:
Binding rather faded and scuffed, with half calf, cloth boards equally faded and rubbed, internal pages foxed and discoloured around the edges, improving as one goes inwards, green paper pages with photographs tabbed down in good order.

Sold for £1,300