A rare glimpse of India

In its first-ever interactive catalogue focused on the Subcontinent, Europes largest rare book dealer offers a peek into the colonial era with illustrated works and eyewitness accounts.

Little is known of French-born topographer Charles Caraccioli. But in History of British Rule in India, Edward John Thompson and Geoffrey Theodore Garratt state, "Everything to [Robert] Clive's discredit (including much that is invented)," can be found in Caraccioli's The Life of Robert Clive, Baron Plassey (London, 1775-1777). The set of four volumes, the first biography of the statesman, is part of a 40-item dedicated catalogue by London-based Peter Harrington, Europe's largest rare book dealer. Titled The Indian Sub-Continent – from the 18th to the 20th century, it has been made interactive for the first time to enable a mobile-friendly experience.

As specialist dealers, private collections are often offered to the store and they follow specialist auctions and attend fairs around the world to buy and sell rare books, too. In an email interview, owner Pom Harrington tells us that the diversity of the collection is not only restricted to the wealth of visual material, with lithographs, illustrations, maps and coloured plates but also explores a variety of subjects — from Ernest Trumpp's The Adi Granth, the first translation into English of the Sikh holy texts to the second edition of Thomas Williamson's Oriental Field Sports.

Old Mumbai by AH Walker, a watercolour panorama of Bombay harbour

A highlight for the team was An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India by Mountstuart Elphinstone, which has always been a personal favourite of Harrington's. "A really very handsome book, this copy is in excellent condition, superbly illustrated with lovely characterful, coloured plates, but it is far from a typically picturesque travelogue. A carefully observed, and highly detailed regional handbook, it is the work of an exceptionally sympathetic, talented and intelligent administrator, whose relatively benign rule as governor of Bombay has been described as working 'with the grain of Indian society' better than those before or after him. The book carries a real sense of a conscious cultural encounter," he shares.

Pom Harrington

The move to create an interactive digital catalogue was rooted in the interests of clients. "Traditional PDF catalogues tend to involve a lot of pinching the screen to zoom in on images, and really aren't shot for mobile; creating a format that seems native to mobile devices was a challenge, but a worthwhile one — we believe that the new interactive interface shows these pieces in their best light," says Harrington. And so far, he informs us, it has received a positive reception from clients who by scrolling through the items, can quickly access additional details and images and then, can be directed to the purchasing platform.

A map from an Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary and India by Mountstuart Elphinstone

A number of titles have already been sold and Harrington expects sales to grow, adding, "Our buyers are not just based in India, but are drawn from the wider diaspora in the UK and beyond; we also have many British collectors who are fascinated by the history and culture of the Subcontinent. Our catalogues also draw considerable interest from institutional buyers such as museums, libraries and galleries worldwide."

Log on to peterharrington.co.uk (international mail order delivery service is fully operational)
Cost £ 850 upwards

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