‘Office of the Sudder Board of Revenue from Kyd Street’, one of the colour plates from the Doyly Views of Calcutta… sold by Chiswick Auctions for £14,000.
In worn and torn but original binding and with some marginal staining, though not affecting the images, it was not in great condition but it sold at £14,000 against a very modest estimate of £1500-2000 in a Chiswick Auctions (22% buyer’s premium) sale of March 22.
Only the coloured copy in the splendid Indian library of Robert and Maria Travis has made more. That one, though it lacked one of the plates, reached £15,000 in the 2005 sale at Sotheby’s.
The Chiswick sale, which contained a wide variety of material and produced a number of surprises, will feature at greater length in next week’s issue.
