Old Mumbai by AH Walker, a watercolour panorama of Bombay harbour

A highlight for the team was An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India by Mountstuart Elphinstone, which has always been a personal favourite of Harrington's. "A really very handsome book, this copy is in excellent condition, superbly illustrated with lovely characterful, coloured plates, but it is far from a typically picturesque travelogue. A carefully observed, and highly detailed regional handbook, it is the work of an exceptionally sympathetic, talented and intelligent administrator, whose relatively benign rule as governor of Bombay has been described as working 'with the grain of Indian society' better than those before or after him. The book carries a real sense of a conscious cultural encounter," he shares.

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Pom Harrington

The move to create an interactive digital catalogue was rooted in the interests of clients. "Traditional PDF catalogues tend to involve a lot of pinching the screen to zoom in on images, and really aren't shot for mobile; creating a format that seems native to mobile devices was a challenge, but a worthwhile one — we believe that the new interactive interface shows these pieces in their best light," says Harrington. And so far, he informs us, it has received a positive reception from clients who by scrolling through the items, can quickly access additional details and images and then, can be directed to the purchasing platform.

A map from an Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary and India by Mountstuart Elphinstone

A number of titles have already been sold and Harrington expects sales to grow, adding, "Our buyers are not just based in India, but are drawn from the wider diaspora in the UK and beyond; we also have many British collectors who are fascinated by the history and culture of the Subcontinent. Our catalogues also draw considerable interest from institutional buyers such as museums, libraries and galleries worldwide."

Log on to peterharrington.co.uk (international mail order delivery service is fully operational)
Cost £ 850 upwards

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