[Z] Champion (Joseph, translator) The Poems of Ferdosi [Presentation copy]

Champion (Joseph, translator) The Poems of Ferdosi [Presentation copy], Calcutta: printed by John Hay, 1785, folio, contemporary full calf, with decorative gilt spine, armorial bookplate for Charles Rouse Boughton, signed inscribed to ffp to 'Sir William B. Rouse from his most obedient Serv. J. Champion', half title, dedication leaf and poem, list of subscribers, title page [listed as volume I but no further volume was published], marginal annotations and corrections in a neat hand throughout [ESTC T101070, Shaw, 41] with a ten page letter in manuscript from Champion to Rouse Boughton dated August 1787, mentions that 'the second volume is finished and the third nearly completed' and also updates Rouse Boughton on the current state of affairs in India 'the province of Farrakabad, which under Ahmed Khan yielded a Revenue of Eleven Lack, was in a superior state of cultivation, is at present a scene of waste & poverty' ... 'Lord Cornwallis proceeds immediately to Lucknow, & takes a Mr Ives with him ...'

Footnote:

The rare first edition of Firdausi in English printed in Calcutta, with only 103 subscribers listed. A London edition followed three years later.

Sold for £22,000

The rare first edition of Firdausi in English printed in Calcutta, with only 103 subscribers listed. A London edition followed three years later.

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Auction: The September Auctions, 16th Sep, 2026

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