Small folio. (32)pp. A delightful and informative rhyming alphabet, hailing from the the era in Myanmar (then Burma) when it was a colony of the British Empire. Wheeler Cuffe's twenty-six watercolors, reproduced here as chromolithographs, portray various aspects of Burmese life in sumptuous color and studied detail. While it is perhaps too far to call a colonizer's depiction of her colonial territory celebratory, Wheeler Cuffe's artwork shows incredible knowledge and appreciation for the native Burmese history and culture. Among the illustrations are pictures of elephants, pagodas, laungs, and former Queen Supaya Lat. At the rear is a glossary with historical and geographic notes each illustration. Text printed in sepia.
Lady Charlotte Wheeler Cuffe (1867-1967) was a noted Irish plant collector, gardener, and botanical artist, and the wife of Sir Otway Wheeler-Cuffe, a civil engineer and Imperial official in Burma. She was instrumental in the establishment of the National Botanic Garden of Burma and was elected to the Royal Geographical Society in 1922. Wheeler Cuffe produced the book to be sold on behalf of the Fund for the Queen Alexandra Children's Hospital in Mandalay.
Bound in brown wrappers with chromolithographs to both covers. Relatively mild edgewear and scant soiling to outermost interior leaves, else near fine. With original printed envelope, rather torn.