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William Griggs, India. Photographs and Drawings of Historical Buildings. 100 Plates Reproduced By W. Griggs. From the Collection in the Late Office of Curator of Ancient Monuments in India, London: Griggs, 1896

100 plates with short introductory texts at beginning of each chapter; overall, there are 49 chromolithographic plates including gold printing of which 9 are folding; the black and white plates are photographs of monuments, and are depicting artefacts, or are architectural plans, drawings and sections (many of which are folding); the bulk plates (about 70) are connected to Islamic artand architecture; original red full-cloth with upper cover richly decorated in gilt and blind tooled on back enclosed in a customised red leather slipcase
37.5 x 28.5 x 3 cm
39 x 31.5 x 4 cm (with slipcase)

First edition of one of the most splendid documentations of the architectural and sculptural wealth of medieval India, including that of "Tomb of Akbar, Sikandra", "Tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah, Agra", "Gwalior", "Diwan-I-Am in the Fort, Delhi", "Diwan-I-Kas in the fort, Delhi", "Rajputana. Palace at Udaipur in Mewar", "Chittor", "Buddhist Tope, sanchi, Bhopal State", "Madura, Madras. Great Temple to Siva and his consort", "Great Temple to Vishnu on the Srirangam Island, Trichinopoly", "Jamsuishwar Temple near Trichinopoly", "Shahdara, Near Lahore", "Lahore Fort", "Badshah Sarai at Nurmahal, near Jalandhar", "Buddhist Sculptures of Gandhara" and an entire chapter on "Golden temple, Amritsar", with the study of architectural details of Golden temple done for the first time.

William Griggs (1832-1911) was a photographer, inventor of an advanced chromolithography known as photo-chromolithography. He was associated with the India Office and made outstanding and very expensive book productions for which he produced coloured illustrations including many works about Indian and Oriental artifacts.

'In 1855 he was selected to be technical assistant to the reporter on Indian products and director of the Indian Museum, then in the India House, Leadenhall Street....He also devised a practicable colour photolithographic process, by first printing from a photolithographic transfer a faint impression on the paper to serve as a "key", separating the colours on duplicate negatives by varnishes, then photolithographing the dissected portions on stones, and finally registering and printing each in its position and particular colour, with the texture, light, and shade of the original' (ODNB).

His unique printing technique was used in John Forbes Watson's The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India (1866); this was followed by those illustrating Tree and Serpent Worship in India (1868), by James Fergusson.

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