1794 · [Bombay]
by Wales, James
[Bombay], 1794. Wales, James (1746/47 - 1795). Cowasjee a Mahratta of the cast of husbandmen . . . Engraving by R[obert] Mabon (d. 1798) after Wales. [Bombay, March 1794]. 394 x 298 mm.; plate mark measures 343 x 248 mm. Creased horizontally and vertically with a few minor marginal tears along folds, left and bottom margins trimmed to the platemark, light foxing and toning but very good. Extremely Rare, Possibly Unique, Legendary First Published Account of the Indian rhinoplasty operation best known from the famous "B.L." letter published in October 1794 in the Gentleman's Magazine (see Garrison-Morton.com 5735.1). "The earliest version of this report was a copperplate print published in folio in Bombay on March 20, the same year 1794" (Gnudi & Webster, p. 310); it predates the "B.L." letter by seven months. The engraving is exceedingly rare—this is the first copy we have ever seen or handled in our six decades in the trade, and we have found no other copies recorded in either North American or European libraries. The Wellcome Library has only W. Nutter's engraving of Wales's Cowasjee portrait (also extremely rare), published in London in 1795. Zeis, writing in the 1860s, cited only one copy of the Bombay print, which he found at the Bibliothek des Herzoglichen Collegium Anatomico-Chirurgicum in Braunschweig. A catalogue of the library published in 1865 lists the print on page 180 under no. 1633; the catalogue's preface includes the following note on p. vi: "Ferner wird hier der sehr seltene, 1794 in Bombay erschienene, Kupferstich aufbewahrt, welcher den kunstlichen Wiederersatz einer vorstümmelt gewesen Nase an dem Gesichte des Ochsentreibers Cowasjee darstellt. Derselben hat der Oberwundarzt Zeis in seinem Werke gebührend gewüdigt und davon etliche photographische Copien anfertigen lassen, welche einegen Bibliotheken zum Geschenke gemacht sind." [Also kept here is the very rare copperplate engraving, published in Bombay in 1794, which shows the artificial replacement of a mutilated nose on the face of the bullock driver Cowasjee. The chief surgeon Zeis has paid due tribute to it in his work and had several photographic copies made of it, which have been donated to certain libraries.] Whether the original print that Zeis saw, or the photographic copies he had made, still exist is uncertain. We have found no reference to the Bibliothek des Herzoglichen Collegium Anatomico-Chirurgicum dating beyond the first decades of the 20th century, nor have we found any record of Zeis's "photographic copies" of the engraving. During World War II Braunschweig was attacked by Allied aircraft in 42 bombing raids, and it is entirely possible that portions, or all of the collections at the Bibliothek, were destroyed. Zeis quotes an imprint line at the foot of the engraving: "Bombay. Published by J. Wales, as the Act directs 20. March 1794." Our copy, in which the entire platemark is visible, does not include this imprint, even though there is ample room for it below the text. Zeis may have been in error, or our version of the plate may have been printed before the addition of the imprint. Cowasjee, who worked for the British Army, had his nose and one of his hands cut off while a prisoner of Tipu Sultan during the third Anglo-Mysore War (1790-92). In 1793 his nose was successfully reconstructed by an Indian surgeon using the so-called Indian or Hindu method, in which the surgeon builds a new nose from a live graft of skin cut from the patient's forehead but left attached at the end nearest the nose. This method of rhinoplasty was then unknown in the West. Two British surgeons stationed in Bombay, Thomas Cruso and James Findlay, observed Cowasjee's operation and publicized the event in a local newspaper. Ten months later James Wales, a Scots artist living in India, documented Cowasjee's post-surgical appearance in a portrait, which was then engraved by Robert Mabon and published in the present print. Exactly why this operation was first published in England in a popular magazine rather than a surgical journal is unclear. However, that is what happened. News of Cowasjee's rhinoplasty operation was first published in England via the "B.L." letter to the Gentleman's Magazine, whose author has been identified as British engraver Barak Longmate (1768-1836). Longmate undoubtedly had access to the Mabon engraving printed in Bombay, as the print's descriptive text beneath Cowasjee's portrait is virtually identical to that in the "B.L." letter; the only difference, barring minor variations in punctuation and spelling, is the abbreviation "H.E.I. Company" in the engraving for the letter's "Honorable East India Company," and the name "Dr. James Findlay" instead of "Dr. James Trindlay." The engraving's text is unsigned but was likely written by one of the British surgeons observing the operation. Catalog der Bibliothek des herzogl. Collegium anatomico-chirurgicum zu Braunschweig (1865), p. vi; no. 1633. Gnudi & Webster, The Life and Times of Gaspare Tagliacozzi, pp. 309-310. E. Zeis, The Zeis Index and History of Plastic Surgery (tr. Thomas Patterson), no. 463. . (Inventory #: 51824)