WILLIAMSON, Captain Thomas. Oriental Field Sports; Being a Complete, Detailed, and Accurate Description of the Wild Sports of the East. Two volumes in one. With 2 engraved title-pages and 40 hand-coloured aquatint plates by Howitt. Folio, 330 x 225 mm, bound in original publisher's black straight-grained morocco, elaborately gilt, wide gilt border round sides, large hunting vignette (engraved by "Knights") gilt stamped on both covers, hunting scences gilt in spine compartments, a.e.g. London: H.R. Young, 1819.

"Second Edition," an excellent copy in the elaborately gilt publisher's full morocco binding. The work is justly celebrated for Samuel Howitt's forty hand-coloured aquatint engravings of dynamic hunting and sporting scenes of the period. The work gave a rapt British public an eye-witness view of one of the most exotic, mysterious and beautiful places of the Empire. First published as an oblong folio in 1807, and again in reduced format in 1808, the work represents the first real study of wild elephants according to Prof. Lahiri-Choudhury's The Great Indian Elephant Book (Oxford University Press, 1999).

In addition, the work includes the natural history for rhinoceroses, tigers, leopards, bears, deers, buffalos, wolves, wild boars, jackalls, wild dogs, feathered game, fishes, and serpents. The work is interspersed with anecdotes by Captain Thomas Williamson, who served nearly twenty years in Bengal. The drawings by Howitt include "Hunting an Old Buffalo," "Beating Sugar Canes for a Hog," "The Hog at Bay," "Killing Game in Boats," "Chase after a Wolf, when Carrying off a Lamb" and many other beautiful prints. Minor rubbing to binding, some minor foxing. Ex-libris Mary Duchess of Bedford (with her feline bookplate dated 1899); with bookplate of "P.G. / Skinos."

Schwerdt 2156. For the first edition see: Tooley 508. Abbey, Travel 427. Mellon, Sporting and Animal Prints pp. 202-3. Prideaux, pp. 281-3