A group of twelve paintings on mica depicting servants, including a groom, a water-carrier (bhisti) and an ayah with a European child Patna, circa 1860(13)
317
A group of twelve paintings on mica depicting servants, including a groom, a water-carrier (bhisti) and an ayah with a European child
Patna, circa 1860
twelve paintings, gouache on mica, and one background, gouache on card, in paper packet
115 x 78 mm.(13)
Sold for £375 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • This group is unusual for including a background card depicting a disembodied head. The various trades and their costumes, painted on the transparent mica, could then be superimposed on this background. Such sets were popular in the latter half of the 19th Century (though they were also being produced earlier): Queen Mary was presented with one during her visit to Benares as part of the Coronation Durbar in 1911, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. For a discussion of this type and of mica paintings in general, see M. Archer, Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period, London 1992, pp. 193-94, 201, no. 197. Another larger group was sold in these rooms, Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, Knightsbridge, 9th June 2010, lot 281.

Category: Islamic and Oriental Art / Islamic and Indian Art

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