Sakoontala or The Lost Ring, An Indian Drama, Translated Into English Prose And Verse From The Sanskrit of Kalidasa, By Monier Willams, New York, Dodd Mead 1885, a limited edition, with exquisite gold and silver embroidered covers in beautiful relief, in a velvet-lined custom box. The limitation page says there were four copies printed on vellum and 110 copies printed on Japan paper in November 1885, and this is number 104 of the 110 copies. The spine and covers are exquisite and not like a typical English or American binding - you have to see them to believe them. The endpapers are blank, the book was published by Dodd Mead and printed at the De Vinne Press in New York, there’s a sixteen-page introduction followed by a list ofthe persons in the story and a guide to pronouncing their names, then 236 pages with ornate colorful borders, the imprint of The Press of Theo L. De Vinne towards the rear, and all the edges are gilt. Sakoontala was the wife of Dushyanta and mother of the Emperor Bharata, the story is about a love affair, a secret marriage, separation and a curse, and a reunion, and the theme of the story is that true love is immortal. We believe that Sakoontala is riding in the chariot on the front cover; her name is sometimes spelled Shakuntala, or Sakuntala in Sanskrit, and she turns out to be the heroine of this great love story from the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. Kalidasa was a fifth-century Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. He had a great influence on other Sanskrit works and on all Indian literature, and his Sanskrit plays influenced late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century European literature; Monier Williams (1819 - 1899) was a British scholar who studied Sanskrit and translated Kalidasa’s play. The book is a large 8 Vo. and measures 10 x 8 in. wide. In excellent condition overall commensurate with age. The binding is intact, there is a tiny split in the fabric near the base, visible remnants of red ribbon page markers, minimal buckling of the pastedown page in the front of the book. The custom box has five raised bands and gilt lettering on the spine, with rubbing at the heel and corners of the box, and scraping on the bottom of the box, where it can’t be seen unless you turn the box upside down. An exquisite binding of an ancient Hindu epic by one of India’s greatest poets and playwrights.