Lithography was introduced to India from France by Philippe de Savignhac. The Asiatic Lithographic Company’s Press was established in 1823 and regarded as the first commercially viable press in India. It was the premier lithographic press in Calcutta during the 1820’s and responsible for a number of “lithographic firsts” in India. The museological importance of the rare Asiatic Museum Illustrated is described in The Indian Museum, 1814–1914; “Unfortunately, as is so often the case in old museum collections, a large proportion of the oldest specimens have lost their value owing to the fact that they were not properly labelled at the time they were received, or that the labels have since been lost. An interesting little book or rather portfolio of lithographs published in 1828 enables us, however, to trace some specimens. This workbears the title “Asiatic Museum Illustrated. Part I. Comprising Figures of all the Models that were presented to the Museum by Miss Tytler……..By Messrs Savignhac and Pearson”. Apparently Part II was never issued. Part I includes a portrait of Sir William Jones, a drawing of the Asiatic Society’s rooms in Park Street(reproduced as the frontispiece of this volume) and figures of a number of models of Indian implements, appliances, conveyances and buildings, made under the supervision of Miss Tytler, a relative of the well-known naturalist, Colonel R.C. Tytler. A few of these models still exist and others evidently formed the prototypes of models on a larger scale constructed at a later date.”