Temples and images, principally in Eastern India. By E. A. S. T. Vol. I.

Imprint: Privately printed. London: 1905. Black half-leather bound album measuring 430 x 303 mm (binding weak, with boards partially detached), with printed titlepage and 3pp. of letterpress introduction and caption notes to the 41 original gelatin silver prints mounted one or two per page on recto. The following letter from Sir Evan James to the Librarian of the India Office, dated 20 April 1914, explains the history of the volumes:'Sir Evan James presents his compliments, and begs to intimate the despatch to the Library, India Office, of a book in 2 volumes illustrated with photographs, entitled 'Temples and Images, principally in Eastern India.' By E.A.S.T. Privately printed, London, 1905.The compiler desires that the authorship should remain anonymous, and he has asked Sir Evan James to forward the books. Only four sets have been printed, and the plates have been broken up. The intention of the compiler was to publish a general work on Hindu Temples and Mythology, and the photographs were collected with this object in view, but the design was afterwards abandoned, and the collected material was formed into the volumes of which a specimen is now offered to the Library of the India Office. Other copies have been sent to the British Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society.'The author's introduction to the volume also says something of the circumstances of its creation: 'These photographs were collected some years ago to aid me in a book which I projected, upon the religious history of India. But, chiefly from lack of time, the work proved too ambitious, so I destroyed my MS. and put the negatives away. Disinterring the small piles of glass not long ago, it occurred to me that prints from them might be of interest to antiquaries and architects, as the collection, though small, yet contains examples of ancient as well as modern temples, of the best period of architecture as of the worst...But the peculiar character of some of the statues and reliefs [i.e their erotic content], even though now so worn and grey with age as to be scarcely recognisable, seems scarcely suitable for a popular work, while on the other hand obliteration would mean disfigurement as well as a sacrifice of the truth. I am, therefore, printing off only a few sets for private distribution, and the illustrations must be taken as they are, quantum valeant.'.

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