1905-6 Royal Tour of India by TRH The Prince & Princess of Wales

ROYAL TOUR SOUVENIR ALBUM. INDIA. 1905-1906. Containing a Complete Pictorial Record of All the Principal Events in the Indian Tour of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. First Edition. Johnston & Hoffmann [Calcutta] 1906 Oblong 8vo [9¾ x 7¾ ins].

Coloured double portrait frontispiece of the Prince in naval uniform and the Princess in tiara, 192pp of good printed photo illustrations and index. Original red cloth gilt, the front board with gilt blocked elaborate title and devices of the order of the Star of India and the Prince of Wales’s crest, all edges gilt, minor wear and a few marks to boards but a very decent copy with no previous ownership markings. The best small pictorial record, well produced on good quality art paper, of this important tour of India and Burma by the Prince & Princess of Wales, whose happy memories of it were in no small part responsible for his return to India in 1911 as George V and King Emperor for the spectacular Delhi Coronation Durbar and tour. The number of pages devoted to pictorial representation of places visited, recorded by one of India’s leading photgraphic studios, is as follows: Bombay (6), Indore (4), Udaipur (2), Jaipur (7), Bikanir (4), Lahore (10), Peshawar (5), Jammu (5), Amritsar (3), Delhi (9), Agra (6), Gwalior (10), Lucknow (5), Calcutta (29), Rangoon (7), Mandalay 8), Madras (17), Bangalore (5), Hyderabad (15), Benares (10), Nepal (1), Quetta 10), Karachi (8). As well as views in the cities there are numerous images of special events and people connected with the tour: military groups, processions, durbars, portraits of Indian Princes, local inhabitants, the Prince hunting, etc.. The detailed descriptions of the photographs, often identifying all the sitters, male this a useful work of reference.  jul31/1