[INDIA] GRIGGS, William (1832-1911). The Ancient Monuments, Temples and Sculptures of India. The Earliest Monuments [CON:] Part II: Mediaeval Monument. London: W. Griggs, 1897 Rare (no passage in a registered auction, RBH) and monumental work dedicated to the archaeological and monumental heritage of India, made by William Grigggs on the basis of the documentation preserved at the India Office in London. The work reproduces, with exceptional technical quality, hundreds of monuments, temples, sculptures and architectural complexes of ancient and medieval India, still constituting today a fundamental testimony of the state of conservation of numerous sites before the restoration of the twentieth century. The tables were made with the innovative process of photochromolithography perfected by Griggs himself, photographer and printer among the most important of the Victorian age. The introductory and descriptive texts are due to the famous archaeologist James Burgess (1832-1916), among the founders of the scientific archaeology of British India. 2 volumes, folio (375 x 270mm). The first includes 170 photographic tables, the second the 171-340 tables (missing table 183). Tables and loose text in percallina editorial boxes, in turn preserved in the original wooden caskets with leather back (a case with a plate detached; missing metal clips). (2)