DOW, Alexander. The History of Hindostan, Translated from the Persian. The Third Edition, in Three Volumes. London: Printed by John Murray, 1792. 3 vols., 8vo.
A handsome and complete eighteenth-century set of Alexander Dow’s influential history of India, with an unusually well-documented early American provenance: each volume bears the engraved armorial bookplate of Ebenezer Stott of Virginia, identifiable with the merchant of Petersburg, Virginia.
Dow served as an officer in the East India Company, and the work belongs to the formative period in which British readers increasingly encountered Indian history through Persian sources translated within the Company’s expanding imperial world.
The first two volumes contain Dow’s English translation of the history by Muhammad Qasim Firishtah, one of the principal Persian chronicles of medieval and Mughal India. Dow supplemented the historical narrative with extensive observations on Indian religion, language, society and government. The third volume is Dow’s own continuation, taking the history from the death of Akbar through the reign of Aurangzeb, preceded by substantial essays on government in Hindostan and the condition and administration of Bengal.
Contemporary full calf, spines richly gilt in compartments with ornamental urn and sunburst tools, black morocco lettering-pieces, volume numbers and dates in gilt. Engraved portrait frontispieces and plates, including a large folding map and folding plate illustrating the Sanskrit alphabet.
Provenance
From the library of Ebenezer Stott of Virginia, with his engraved armorial bookplate in each of the three volumes. The plate is recorded by Charles Dexter Allen in American Book-Plates (1894) as “Ebenezer Stott. Armorial. Of Virginia.” Stott is identifiable with the eighteenth-century merchant of Petersburg, Virginia, documented there in contemporary records.
Size
22x14cm.
Condition
Good. The contemporary calf bindings remain sound and attractive, with all boards securely attached. General rubbing, scuffing and wear, somewhat more pronounced to the spine of volume II, with wear to extremities and some loss of surface finish; the gilt decoration and lettering remain substantially clear and the three volumes present well together. Internally generally clean and well preserved, with occasional light spotting, toning and signs of use. The engraved material is particularly good: the folding plates and large folding map remain in very good, crisp condition.
Bibliographical Note
Third edition. Vol. I: [20], lxix, [1], 393 pp., engraved frontispiece, 2 engraved plates (1 folding), large folding map; Vol. II: [16], 429 pp., engraved frontispiece and 4 engraved plates; Vol. III: cx, 450, [16] pp. Collated complete in all three volumes.
References
ESTC N9057; Charles Dexter Allen, American Book-Plates (1894), no. 832.
