India.- Wales (James) [Twelve views of the island of Bombay and its vicinity; taken in the years 1791 and 1792], the set of 12, including two double-page panoramas, the 'View of Bombay Harbour' and 'View from Malabar Hill', etchings, with extensive vibrant hand-colouring, probably by the artist, on thick sheets of Whatman wove paper, each platemark approx. 405 x 640 mm (16 x 25 1/4 in), each sheet approx. 505 x 720 mm (19 7/8 x 28 1/4 in), extensive losses to sheets and parts of images to lower corners and margins, some large sheet loss restored but with subsequent further damage and loss to the majority, some with associated damp-stain damage, brown paper wrappers, lower cover with substantial losses, surface dirt, worn, oblong elephant folio, [Not in Abbey], Robert Samuel Cribb, 1800

⁂ Scarce. We have been unable to trace another copy on the market for over 30 years. The suite was executed before the Daniell brothers arrived in Bombay, after which James Wales became a draughtsman for the Daniell's Oriental Scenery.

"With their particular high views, long perspectives, sharp landscape details, minute Indian figures, and bright light-filled wash, these Bombay etchings are significant both as a finished set of the artist's early work in India and for the way in which they anticipate and inform his later plans for portraying the mysterious environment of 'rural complexity' and spiritual 'grandeur' of the Indian antiquities." [De Almeida, H. Indian Renaissance, pages 126-132].