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HENRY CREIGHTON, The Ruins of Gour: Described and Represented in Eighteen Views, with a Topographical Map, Compiled from the manuscripts and drawings of the late H Creighton, London: Black, Parbury & Allen, 1817

[iv], iii, 12, [38] pages, includes half-title and list of views; 14 of 15 hand-coloured [1 tipped-in photocopy of the original plate] and 3 uncoloured aquatint plates by T Medland, large folding hand-coloured map etched by Thomas Fisher, East India House, after Creighton dated 1811
Contemporary polished leather-bound with decorative gilt border to the front and back boards along with the gilt text at the spine with 4 raised bands
29 x 23.5 x 2.5 cm

The present lot is a set of 18 views of Gour - a historic city that now lies on the border of India and Bangladesh - based on drawings by Henry Creighton. The son of a Scottish native, Creighton began working for Charles Grant as a mercantile assistant. At the time, Grant was a Commercial Resident at the East India Company's factory in the district of Malda in Bengal. The factory's headquarters were located a few miles outside the town of Gour, and they produced silk and cotton goods and pure raw silk. Grant had also set up an indigo factory in Guamalati, which was situated among the ruins of the city, and employed Creighton in 1786 as its superintendent. Creighton worked there until his death in 1807, when he was a mere 40 years of age.

Creighton was an excellent draughtsman and painter, and he sought inspiration in the ruins of Gour. At that time, Gour was considered a quarry of sorts, and bricks from this site were transported to Malda, Murshidabad, Rajmahal and other places, as building material. For this, Gour's buildings and monuments from antiquity were defaced and destroyed. Opposed to this practice, Creighton put in considerable effort to excavate and preserve the carved architectural fragments and detached inscriptions that could be found in the forests surrounding Gour, and prevented them from being poached. He kept careful records of their site of origin and preserved them in the courtyard of his factory. These artefacts eventually found their way into major public collections in the USA and UK, including The British Museum.

During this endeavour, Creighton visited all the surviving monuments of Gour and painted sketches of them. He even repaired some of the crumbling edifices like Firuz Minar...He also collected the prized glazed bricks of Gour and coins, the latter have been occasionally found among the ruins in his time. His antiquarian interests led him to Pandua where he prepared detailed architectural drawings of the Adina Mosque and probably other monuments, which never came to light.(Pratip Kumar Mitra, Pratna Samiksha: A Journal of Archaeology, New Series: Volume 3, Kolkata: Centre for Archaeological Studies and Training, Eastern India, 2012, p. 214)

Creighton gradually developed a large portfolio of these drawings, and by 1801, had completed the first scientific survey of the city of Gour, including a detailed map of its ruins. He presented a copy of his survey map on a reduced scale to Marquis of Wellesley, the then Governor-General of Bengal (1798-1805). (Mitra, p. 214)

In 1808, a year after Creighton's death, six of his drawings were engraved and published by James Moffat in Calcutta. To provide some support for the family after his death, a book titled The Ruins of Gour: Described and Represented in Eighteen Views with a Topographical Map, which was a compilation of his manuscripts and drawings, was published by Black, Parbury, & Allen, Bookseller nine years later. The aquatints were engraved by Thomas Medland, who was the drawing master at The East India Company's College at Haileybury, and the map was etched by Thomas Fisher.

LIST OF PLATES

1. The Tower.
2. The Dakhil Gate.
3. The Chand Gate.
4. The Cutwaly Gate
5. The Suna Masjid, or Golden Mosque.
6. Chuta Suna Masjid or small Golden Mosque.
7. The Inside of the Chuta Suna Masjid or small Golden Mosque.
8. The Tomb of Shah Husayn.
9. The Painted Mosque.
10. A small gateway covered with a Dome.
11. Kadum Rasul, or the Prophet's Foot, a Mosque.
12. Thanty Para.
13. Ruins of a Bridge. [Tipped in a photocopy of the original plate]
14. Tombs at the small Golden Mosque.
15. Cham Kutta, a small Mosque.

LIST OF UNCOLOURED PLATES

16. Varaha Avatara.
17. Sivani, A Hindu Image
18. Brahmani and Bhwani
19. A (folding) map of Gour 1801.