Indian lithographic printing Tarikh-i darbar-i taj pushi ['History of the Coronation Durbar']

Indian lithographic printing Tarikh-i darbar-i taj pushi ['History of the Coronation Durbar'] Lucknow: Nawal Kishore, c.1904. 4to, recent red leather binding with original gilt cloth sides laid down, 4 12 596 pp., 2 lithographic title-pages printed in red and green, 48 halftone photographic plates, mainly portraits of maharajas (also including portraits of Edward VII, Curzon, the Duke of the Kent and their families, and durbar scenes), text in Urdu, lithographed throughout, cloth rubbed and mottled text-leaves toned, ink-stamps of one C. L. Agrawal to blanks and to margins of pp. 262 and 326 Qty: (1) Note: Rare fully illustrated Urdu translation of Stephen Wheeler's History of the Delhi Coronation Durbar (1904), no other copy traced in libraries in or in commerce. The Nawal Kishore Press, founded at Lucknow in 1858 by Hindu entrepreneur Nawal Kishore (1836-1895), 'grew into the largest Indian-owned printing and publishing firm in South Asia. Supported by colonial patronage, the firm published an estimated 5,000 titles in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sanskrit and Hindi during Nawal Kishore's lifetime, while it also served as an intellectual hub for scholars, poets and literati. As one observer noted: "No other press in India was fortunate to have such a large number of huffaz, scholars, historians, writers and poets as were gathered simultaneously at this press"' (Ulrike Stark, 'Calligraphic Masterpiece, Mass-Produced Scripture: Early Qur'an Printing in Colonial India', in Reese, ed., Manuscript and Print in the Islamic Tradition, 2002, p. 158).