Robert Melville Grindlay (1786–1877)

Grindlay was an amateur artist, whose drawings formed the basis of engravings and aquatints published by Smith, Elder & Company. Grindlayʼs major book, Scenery, Costumes and Architecture, Chiefly on the Western Side of India, which contained thirty‐six aquatint prints (not all of them based on Grindlayʼs drawings), was published between 1826 and 1830. Its first two parts were produced by Rudolph Ackermann, and its remaining four parts by Smith, Elder. A sketch by Grindlay from travel in Italy was worked into an engraving for Smith, Elderʼs annual, Friendshipʼs Offering, in 1830 (see “Saltzburg”: Discussion—The Circumstances of the Commission).

From 1803, Grindlay served in the East India Companyʼs military service (Bombay Native Infantry), and in other official positions, which enabled him to travel extensively throughout western India and record the sights in sketches. Returning to England in 1817 and retiring from the service in 1820, Grindlay founded a London agency, Leslie & Grindlay, in 1828, which managed shipping and passenger travel to and from India. The agency, which eventually grew into the major Anglo‐Indian banking firm named for him, Grindlayʼs, was originally situated in Birchin Lane, near the second location of Smith, Elder, at 65, Cornhill ( Rohatgi and Parlett, Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists, 213–16; Rohatgi, “Amateur Artists in Western India”, 26–31). As both Leslie & Grindlay and Smith, Elder dealt in Anglo‐Indian travel and trade, it seems likely that Grindlay and Alexander Elder were brought together by their shared artistic as well as business interests.

The production of Scenery, Costumes and Architecture, Chiefly on the Western Side of India, closely supervised by Grindlay, drew on a small army of artists, engravers, and aquatint specialists (some of whom, such as the artists William Daniell (1769–1837) and William Purser (ca. 1790–1852), also produced work for Smith, Elderʼs Friendshipʼs Offering). The publication must have marked a significant milestone for Smith, Elderʼs comparatively young publishing division, since Pauline Rohatgi rates the work “among the finest illustrated books ever produced”, achieving a “perfection of the aquatint printing process”, which was notable in this case for “an unusually wide range of coloured inks used in the actual printing, with the result that hardly any additional hand‐colouring was needed to complete the effect” (Rohatgi, “Amateur Artists in Western India”, 19).