Shown here is one of 25 coloured litho plates that illustrate Sir Charles Doyly’s Views of Calcutta and its Environs, a large folio work published in 1848.
In worn and torn but original binding and with some marginal staining, though not affecting the images, it was not in great condition but it sold at £14,000 against a very modest estimate of £1500-2000 in a Chiswick Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) sale of March 22.
Only the coloured copy in the splendid Indian library of Robert and Maria Travis has made more. That one, though it lacked one of the plates, reached £15,000 in the 2005 sale at Sotheby’s.