Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindostan

James Fergusson was a writer on architecture. He travelled to India to take up a place in a firm of which his elder brother was a partner, Fairlie, Fergusson, & Company, merchants in Calcutta. Soon after his arrival in India at an early age he started an indigo factory on his own account, and as he fortunately left the parent company before its failure he was able in about ten years' time to retire from business with a moderate competency, and to carry out an early resolution of devoting himself to archaeological studies.

His antiquarian enthusiasm was boundless and he was a skilled draughtsman with the camera lucida, much in vogue at this time, following its use with success by the Daniell's. His last visit to India was in 1845, but before this chiefly between 1835 and 1842, he had made the lengthened tours in India which are shown in the map in this work. Schliemann was to dedicate his great work, "Tiryns" to Fergusson, as "the historian of architecture, eminent alike for his knowledge of art and for the original genius which he has applied to the solution of some of its most difficult problems".

Folio, sketch map of India, frontispiece p.17. Bowlee at Boondee, lithographed title, and 23 other tinted lithographed plates.

References:

Abbey Travel 480, Bobins 241.