Folio (384 x 270 mm). Text in English and French; 60 hand-colored engraved plates by Scott or Vivares after Solvyns watermarked 1800, 1802, or 1804, occasionally with tissue guards. Contemporary red morocco-backed boards, red morocco corners, sides with central gilt "E A" cypher, smooth spine gilt, uncut (short vertical tear on spine panel, a few neat repairs to spine ends). Provenance: Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (1781-1824), French general in the Napoleonic Wars, and Viceroy of Italy (cypher on binding); Princess Augusta Amalia Ludovika Georgia of Bavaria (1788-1851), wife of Eugène Rose de Beauharnais and daughter of Napoleon's ally Maximilian I of Bavaria (cypher on binding); Eugene de Savitsch (bookplate dated 1948). 

FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM of Solvyns' record of the people of Bengal, based on drawings he made while living in Calcutta from 1791 to 1803. His work was first published in 1803 in parts, followed by editions in 1804 (as here), and 1807.

Eugène Rose de Beauharnais and Princess Augusta Amalia Ludovika Georgia of Bavaria's copy, with their gilt cypher on the covers.  Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Eugène Rose de Beauharnais was the stepson of Napoleon Bonaparte. He joined the 1st Hussar Regiment in 1797, serving as an aide-de-camp to his Napoleon Bonaparte in the Italian campaign. Abbey Travel 429; Brunet V:433; Colas 2765.