The Madras New Almanac, General Directory and Register for 1841

Madras : J. B. Pharaoh, 1841. Octavo, modern half calf over marbled papered boards, spine in compartments with gilt lettering, new endpapers, folding frontispiece map with original hand colouring titled ‘Map exhibiting the present partition of the country dependant on Fort St. George into military divisions with the several stations of troops’, engraved title page with contemporary ownership inscription of Perry, pp. [i] – iii; [blank]; [iv]; [16, paginated A – O]; [blank]; lvi; [ii]; folding plate illustrating a lunar eclipse; 449; lii; x;  lithographed map with original hand colouring of the Island of Ramisserram (Rameswaram); Eastern China (with original hand colouring, including an inset map of the Canton River), three hand coloured plates illustrating signals from Marryat’s Code of Signals;  the maps and plates all lithographed by J. Dunphy & Co., Madras, Nov. 1840, previous owner’s name ‘Perry’ to title page and p. 225 (Civil Service List, indicating Perry may have been part of the Civil Service), internally clean, a very good copy.

An exceedingly rare and comprehensive almanac for British India with detailed information on agriculture and horticulture, gardening, the planting of grape vines, astronomy, Hindu and ‘Mahomaden’ festivals, topography, the military, the civil service, the medical establishment, postal regulations, weights and measures, historical events, acts of parliament etc. It includes 25 pages on Chinese history with a fine map of Eastern China including the Canton River at the time of the First Opium War.