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Lot 114

A view of a Mughal tomb, formerly owned by Lady Sale
Company School, Agra, circa 1830

10 April 2008, 14:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £900 inc. premium

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A view of a Mughal tomb, formerly owned by Lady Sale
Company School, Agra, circa 1830

gouache on ivory, mounted in an ornate gold frame, inscribed on the reverse Sent by Lady Sale from India 1840
43 mm. diam. including frame

Footnotes

Florentia, Lady Sale (1790?-1853), the grand-daughter of Alexander Wynch, Governor of Madras from 1775 to 1776, was the wife of Sir Robert ('Fighting Bob') Sale (1782-1845), second in command of the ill-fated expedition against the Afghans in 1840, when an entire army of fifteen thousand men failed to return. She is famous for her book A Journal of the First Afghan War (published in London in 1843, reprinted Oxford 2002, ed. P. Macrory). She and other women and children were taken prisoner by Akbar Khan and removed to Bamyan, where they remained until they secured their release by bribing their captors. Lady Sale kept a diary throughout her ordeal, which was published by John Murray.

Lady Sale is thought to have lived in Agra during the 1830s so it is likely that she commissioned the brooch, originally part of a bracelet of such medallions, whilst resident there. She was a great admirer of Mughal art and architecture and she continued to reside in India following her husband's death in 1845.

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