Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
Lot 191
A collection of thirty-one drawings, depicting subjects from Hindu mythology, court and battle scenes, and studies of animals Pahari, early 19th Century(29)
6 October 2015, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£12,000 - £15,000
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A collection of thirty-one drawings, depicting subjects from Hindu mythology, court and battle scenes, and studies of animals
Pahari, early 19th Century
Pahari, early 19th Century
thirty-one drawings on twenty-eight sheets, pen and ink on paper, several with use of gouache, some with inscriptions in nagari and takri script, now in separate folders in modern archival box, together with the original half-leather album in which the drawings were mounted, some leaves with captions, later label reading from Percival Chater Manuk Collection, drawings/sketches, Indian Life & Mythology, 18th Century
the largest 245 x 178 mm.; the smallest 87 x 95 mm.; album 280 x 225 mm.(29)
the largest 245 x 178 mm.; the smallest 87 x 95 mm.; album 280 x 225 mm.(29)
Footnotes
Provenance
Formerly in the collection of Percival Chater Manuk (1873-1946).
Percival Chater Manuk was a high court judge in Patna, and was an early collector of Indian miniatures. He encountered W. G. Archer (who was stationed in Bihar) when the latter was posted to Patna in 1940, along with other connoisseurs of Indian painting such as Rai Krishna Dasa and Gopi Krishna Kanoria, and this seems to have been the starting point for both W. G. and Mildred Archer's interest in the subject. Chater Manuk bequeathed, in his own name and that of Miss G M Coles, approximately fourteen hundred works (including European and Oriental pictures, miniatures, manuscripts, enamels, Georgian and Indian silver objects, Chinese porcelain, glass and carpets) through the National Art Collections Fund to the British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and Bristol Art Gallery.
The subjects of the drawings are as follows:
1. Shiva as Vishwarupa (the cosmic form), 141 x 234 mm.
2. Radha and Krishna at a balcony window (with notes regarding colour), 232 x 154 mm.
3. The goddess Durga, along with a manifestation of her as Kali, in combat with demons, verso a variation of the same subject, 153 x 245 mm.
4. Mahabali with the dwarf avatar of Vishnu (vamana avatar), 203 x 145 mm.
5. A maiden playing a vina before a holy man, 130 x 185 mm.
6. A maiden with a hound, 195 x 140 mm.
7. A study of elephants, 87 x 95 mm.
8. A prince seated on a charpoy with attendants, 63 x 157 mm.
9. A study of oxen, 128 x 95 mm.
10. Krishna as a child with the ogress Putana, 93 x 127 mm.
11. A study of two ducks, 160 x 125 mm.
12. Siva and Parvati on Mount Kailasa with gods led by Brahma, 187 x 228 mm.
13. A seated prince, 155 x 93 mm.
14. A seated prince smoking a hookah, 205 x 156 mm.
15. Shiva, as Tripurantaka, seated in a horse-drawn chariot with the sun and moon as wheels, Brahma as his charioteer, 156 x 217 mm.
16. Three maidens in discussion, 147 x 133 mm.
17. A nobleman before a shrine to Vishnu and Lakshmi, 180 x 130 mm.
18. Durga in aerial combat with Mahishasura and other demons; verso two portrait studies of a prince, 200 x 217 mm.
19. Nanda with Krishna and Balarama as children, 148 x 203 mm.
20. A devotee before Panchamukha Siva and Parvati, 135 x 213 mm.
21. Lovers making a moonlit escape from a palace, 190 x 130 mm.
22. A maiden promenading with female musicians and attendants, 233 x 155 mm.
23. Krishna with Yashoda in a palace courtyard, 245 x 178 mm.
24. The churning of the sea (kurma avatar); verso Matsya avatar, 157 x 210 mm.
25. A patriarch with his daughters, 157 x 210 mm.
26. A hunting scene with female mounted archers, 185 x 195 mm.
27. A palace scene with a maiden and her suitor, 223 x 165 mm.
28. A maiden playing a musical instrument with an attendant, 175 x 130 mm.