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Anonymous, The Indian Charivari [Volume I], Calcutta: [publisher not identified], 7, D' Acres Lane, 1875

378 pages illustrated with 84 of 91 full-page hand-coloured lithographic portrait plates [5-10, 26 missing] with accompanying text on facing leaf related to caricatures of British life in India; cloth boards with gilt title to the spine
30.5 x 25 x 2.5 cm

Collection of portraits / caricatures of statesmen, military types and major public figures of the day in imperial India accompanied by a page of text giving biographical details and information about their work or post.

Le Charivari was a French satirical periodical, featuring an original caricature daily, founded in Paris in 1832. It borrowed its name from the folk tradition of a boisterous parade that derided wrongdoers publicly. The British version, in the form of a weekly magazine, was established in 1841 as Punch: The London Charivari. An Indian rendition followed in the 1870s, published at 7, D'Acres Lane in Calcutta.

Art historian Partha Mitter, in his article Cartoons of the Raj published in History Today magazine in September 1997, wrote, "Of the English comic magazines, none was more accomplished than The Indian Charivari founded in 1872. What provided The Indian Charivari its cutting edge was facial malice. Caricature thrives on consensus, on a shared culture of 'us' versus 'them'. The joke is shared and so is the hostility. The arresting quality of this comic magazine lay in its witty caricatures of the Bengali character, exploiting the existing views of the Westernised Bengali as a buffoon with touching pretensions to rival the rulers in intellect and culture."

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