Eighteen views taken at and near Rangoon.
Joseph Moore (fl.1826)
Category
Books
Date
1825 - 1826
Materials
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 3085530
Summary
Joseph Moore, Eighteen Views taken at & near Rangoon, London: Thomas Clay, 1825-6. Binding: Nineteenth-century half red morocco binding; red cloth sides; red morocco label on upper cover, with gilt title 'Views in Rangoon. Moore. 1826'; gilt spine title and tools; sewn on five raised bands; original printed paper wrappers to parts 1-3 of first series bound in at end. Binder's stamp on front pastedown: 'Morrell. Binder. London.'.
Full description
By the early nineteenth century the British were firmly established as the masters of India and, following Burmese incursions on its north-eastern frontier, the East India Company declared war on Burma in February 1824. While the troops of the Burmese Empire invaded the province of Chittagong, on the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal, the Company mounted a full-scale sea-borne assault on Rangoon, landing 11,000 men in May 1824 under the command of Major-General Archibald Campbell and Captain Frederick Marryat. The invaders found the city largely abandoned by its inhabitants, and in the subsequent conflict the Burmese army was crushed by the modern European weapons fielded by the East India Company. After two years of fighting, Burma was defeated and forced both to cede territory and to pay a huge indemnity to the company, beginning the process which would end with the country's annexation by the British Empire in 1889. This splendid plate book, dedicated to the Court of Directors of the East India Company, was illustrated by Joseph Moore, a lieutenant in the 89th Regiment, which took part in the war. Here, in an improbably calm and orderly scene, a group of red-coated troops marches along the great avenue leading from the sacred Shwedagon Pagoda, whose huge gold-covered ‘stupa’ can be seen in the background. The pagoda, a place of pilgrimage for Burmese Buddhists, was used as a fortress by the British during the Burmese War, and was pillaged and damaged by the occupiers. Text adapted from Mark Purcell's entry in ‘Treasures from Lord Fairhaven’s Library at Anglesey Abbey’, National Trust, 2013, cat. 34, pp. 110-1.
Bibliographic description
3 v. bound in 1, plates : col. ill., facsims., plan ; fol. Imperfect: lacks text of second series. Plates and text of first series bound together, with 4to text inlaid on blank folio sheets, and interleaved with plates. Plates of second series bound in following first series. Plate 16 is second issue (with "adjacent" spelt correctly). Plan and list of Indian subscribers present. Loosely inserted: typed and printed book dealers' descriptions of this copy, the printed catalogue clipping with its price cut out. Provenance: Twentieth-century armorial bookplate (large variant), signed Badeley 1930: ‘Urban Huttleston Rogers Lord Fairhaven’ [i.e.: Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966)]. Binding: Nineteenth-century half red morocco binding; red cloth sides; red morocco label on upper cover, with gilt title 'Views in Rangoon. Moore. 1826'; gilt spine title and tools; sewn on five raised bands; original printed paper wrappers to parts 1-3 of first series bound in at end. Binder's stamp on front pastedown: 'Morrell. Binder. London.'.
Provenance
Bought for £24 by Lord Fairhaven at an unknown date and then bequeathed by him to the National Trust with the house and the rest of the contents in 1966.
Makers and roles
Joseph Moore (fl.1826), artist Captain Frederick Marryat (London 1792 - Langham 1848), artist Henry Pyall (1795-1833), engraver (printmaker) George Hunt (fl.early-mid 19th century) , engraver (printmaker)
References
Mark Purcell, William Hale and David Person, Treasures from Lord Fairhaven’s Library at Anglesey Abbey, Swindon: National Trust; London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers, 2013., pp. 110-11