Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 300
A Fraser Album Artist: an elephant and driver, probably from the Mughal Emperor's stable, with a hunting howdah equipped with a rifle, bows and a pistol Delhi, 1815-19
8 April 2014, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £74,500 inc. premium
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A Fraser Album Artist: an elephant and driver, probably from the Mughal Emperor's stable, with a hunting howdah equipped with a rifle, bows and a pistol
Delhi, 1815-19
Delhi, 1815-19
pencil and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour and gold, on paper, inscribed upper left Mawla Bakhsh in Persian in nasta'liq script, further inscribed faintly centre left fil mawla bakhsh-e khassa-ye hozur-e vala, 'The elephant Mawla Bakhsh of the royal majestic presence', framed
310 x 420 mm.
310 x 420 mm.
Footnotes
Provenance:
Private collection;
Christie's, The Ismail Merchant Collection, London, 7th October 2009, lot 139;
Sotheby's, Fine Oriental Manuscripts, Miniatures and Qajar Lacquer, London, 7th July 1980, lot 16.
Published:
M. Archer and T. Falk, India Revealed: the Art and Adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, London, 1989, p. 110, pl. 98.
According to the account given by S. Mahdi Husain in Bahadur Shah Zafar and the War of 1857 in Delhi, 1958, repr. 2006, p. 54, an elephant called Mawla Bakhsh was a favourite pet of Bahadur Shah II. Presumably, given the earlier date, this same animal survived another forty years, or the name was carried over to other elephants in the royal menagerie.