Prints and Ephemera

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Collection of seven illustrated pages from the Illustrated London News relating to the First Sikh War, 1845-1846.  Inlcuded are the capture of the Fort of Kote Kangra; Soondur Singh, Killadar of Kangra; hill forts of Powanghur and Punalla, Indian colours taken at Zublan, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Alcan; plan of operations before Moltan; monument at Chillianwallah; sketches; double page panorama of troops on the march.

Price: $200.00

Note: The first war was precipitated by mutual suspicions and the turbulence of the Sikh army. The Sikh state in the Punjab had been built into a formidable power by the maharaja Ranjit Singh, who ruled from 1801 to 1839. Within six years of his death, however, the government had broken down in a series of palace revolutions and assassinations. By 1843, the ruler was a boy, the youngest son of Ranjit Singh, whose mother was proclaimed queen regent. t-sape023a5SAPE023t-sape023a6SAPE023Actual power, however, resided with the army, which was in the hands of “punches”, or military committees.  Relations with the British had already been strained during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-1842).  Having determined to invade British India under the pretext of forestalling a British attack, the Sikhs crossed the Sutlej River in December 1845.  They were defeated in the four bloody and hard-fought battles of Mudki, Firoz Shah (Firozpur), Aliwal, and Sobraon.  The British annexed Sikh lands east of the Sutlej and between it and the Beas River; Kashmir and Jammu were detached and the Sikh army limited to 20,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry.  A British resident was stationed in Lahore with British troops. B

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t-sape022a1SAPE 022Large collection of 20 illustrations from European periodicals on the British Mission to Yarkund and Kashgar in 1874. The Pamirs are a moutainous region of central Asia, lying on the north-west border of India. Since 1875 the Pamirs have probably been the best explored region of High Asia. Not only have many travelers of many nationalities directed their steps towards the Bam-i-dunya (“the Roof of the World”) in search of adventure or of scientific information, but the government surveys of Russia and India have met in these high altitudes, and there effected a connection which have helped to solve many of the geodetic problems which beset the superficial survey of Asia. Since Wood first discovered a source of the Oxus in Lake Victoria in 1837, and left us a somewhat erroneous conception of the physiography of the Pamirs, the gradual approach of Russia from the north stimulated the processes of exploration from the side of India. Native explorers from India first began to be be busy in the Pamirs about 1860, and continued their investigations for the following 15 years. In 1874 the mission of Sir D. Forsyth to Yarkund led to the systematic geographical exploration of the Pamir country.The illustrations in this collection are mainly from Forsyth's mission. B

Price: $440.00

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A large collection of over 120 illustrated pages from different European periodicals on the Afghan Rebellion of 1879.

The British resident in Kabul, Sir Louis Cavagnari, was assassinated on September 3, 1879, just two months after he arrived.  British troops trudged back over the mountain passes and the Afghan uprising against the British was, unlike that of the Second Anglo-Afghan War, foiled in October 1879 with the reoccupation of Kabul.  Yaqub abdicated.

Despite the success of the military venture, by March 1880 even the proponents of the Forward Policy were aware that defeating the Afghan tribes did not mean controlling them.  Although British policymakers had briefly thought simply to dismember Afghanistan a few months earlier, they now feared they were heading for the same disasters that befell their predecessors a the time of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. B

Price: $1800.00

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South Asia Prints and EpemeraSAPE004

 

Extra large foldout illustration titled 'Attack on Fort Ali Musjid, November 21'. The print is dated January 15, 1879. 51x88cm. BB

Price: $120.00

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A collection of 24 period illustrations from European periodicals on the Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1878-1879. Events leading up to it and local life at the time. B

Note:The disaster of the First Anglo-Afghan War continued to haunt the British for decades, and the 70 years following the defeat of 1842 were a period of extraordinary vacillation in British policy toward Afghanistan. Not only were political perspectives different in Delhi and London, but there were also changes in government. Imperialists favored the Forward Policy, which held that the defense of India required pushing its frontiers to the natural barrier of the Hindu Kush so that Afghanistan (or at least parts of it, such as Herat) would be brought entirely under British control. In 1874 Benjamin Disraeli became prime minister of Britain and in 1876 a new viceroy (Lord Lyton) was dispatched to Delhi with orders to reinstate the Forward Policy. Sher Ali (also Shir ‘Ali), t-sape002a4SAPE 002t-sape002a5SAPE 002the emir of Afghanistan, rejected a second British demand for a British mission in Kabul (1876), arguing that if he agreed the Russians might demand the same right.

After tension between Russia and Britain in Europe ended with the June 1878 Congress of Berlin, Russia turned its attention to Central Asia. In the summer of 1878 Russia sent an uninvited diplomatic mission to Kabul, headed by Russia’s General Stolyetov, setting in motion the train of events that led to the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Sher Ali tried to keep the Russian mission out but failed. The Russian envoys arrived in Kabul on July 22, 1878, and on August 14 the British demanded that Sher Ali accept a British mission. Sher Ali had not responded by August 17 when his son and heir died, throwing the court into mourning.

t-sape002a6SAPE 002t-sape002a7SAPE 002When no reply was received, the British dispatched an envoy, Sir Neville Chamberlain, with a small military force, which was refused permission to cross the Khyber Pass by Afghan troops. The British presumably considered this an insult, but more likely it was viewed at the highest levels as a fine pretext for implementing the Forward Policy and taking over most of Afghanistan. The British delivered an ultimatum to Sher Ali, demanding an explanation of his actions. The Afghan response was viewed by the British as unsatisfactory, and on November 21, 1878, British troops entered Afghanistan at three points. Sher Ali, having turned in desperation to the Russians, received no assistance from them. Appointing his son, Yaqub, t-sape002a8SAPE 002regent, Sher Ali left to seek the assistance of the Tsar. Advised by the Russians to abandon this effort and to return to his country, Sher Ali returned to Mazare Sharif, where he died in February 1879.

With British forces occupying much of the country, Yaqub signed the Treaty of Gandamak in May, 1879 to prevent British invasion of the rest of Afghanistan. According to this agreement and in return for an annual subsidy and loose assurance of assistance in case of foreign aggression, Yabub agreed to British control of Afghan foreign affairs, British representatives in Kabul and other locations, extension of British control to the Khyber and Michni passes, and the cession of various frontier areas to the British.

Price: $490.00

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Two illustrations from English periodicals on the First Anglo-Afghan War, 1839-1842. B

Price: $50.00

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