India and the Punjab – rare Sikh book with Lithographs Soltykoff’s travels in Lahore. A rare edition of Voyages dans l’Inde by Prince Alexis with exquisite lithographs and detailed account of the Sikh court and India in French c1858, 456 pages with all Sikh related lithographs appear intact. Soltykoff visited Punjab during the reign of Maharajah Sher Singh and his lithos includes Akalis entering Lahore Voyage on the plains of the Punjab and Maharajah Sher riding on an elephant with his troops. Soltykoff writes: ‘this morning the King gave us a state audience. What a sight! I could scarcely believe my eyes. Everything glittered with precious stones and the brightest colours arranged in harmonious combinations.’ When he died in 1839 the Maharaja’s body was borne through the streets to his funeral pyre in a golden ship ‘with sails of gilt cloth to waft him into paradise’ where four of his wives and five of his slave girls elected to burn with him in the act of sati. His most lasting cultural legacy was the enrichment with marble and gold of the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar holiest site of the Sikhs thereafter known as the Golden Temple. A rare book with very fine detailed lithographs of the Sikh court Nihungs and Sikh nobles.