A Memoir of Central India, Including Malwa, and Adjoining Provinces. With the History and Copious Illustrations, of the Past and Present Condition of That Country [In Two Volumes] (Signed / Inscribed by the Author to the Oriental Club, Which He Himself Established)

London: Printed for Kingsbury, Parbury & Allen, 1824. Second Edition. Very good. Second edition; 8 1/2 x 5 1/2; pp. 580 and 547, respectively; rebound in brown cloth and 3/4 tooled morocco, with gilt title and initials and five raised bands to spine; illustrated with two large, fold-out maps (one of them hand-colored); ornate bookplates of the Oriental Club to front board verso (with a manuscript note in an unknown hand, stating that the volumes had been added to the library by the author); small, rubbed spots to corners; a bit of rubbing to edges; bottom of preface leaf in vol. I and pp. 1-2 in vol. II trimmed (not affecting text); closed splits to maps (no loss); overall in good to very good condition. Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page of vol. I (top edge of inscription slightly trimmed, while being rebound [?]).Major-General Sir John Malcolm (1769 - 1833) was a Scottish diplomat, historian, author, and soldier. First serving in the East India Company's Madras Army for 11 years, from the time he was 14, he would go on to be a Military Secretary of Sir Alured Clarke, Head of two diplomatic missions to Iran, and Governor of Bombay. Author of several notable works, his "History of Iran" would be the first in English, derived directly from primary sources). After taking a 5-year hiatus and returning to Britain in 1822, Sir Malcolm founded the Oriental Club in London in 1824 (still very much in existence) - a gentleman's club, "composed of noblemen and gentlemen who have travelled or resided in Asia, at St Helena, in Egypt, at the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius, or at Constantinople; or whose official situations connect them with the administration of our Eastern government abroad or at home." Its first president was the Duke of Wellington. Evidenty, the author gifted the books to the club's library, the same year he established it and the year they were published.