
Oliver White
Head of Department




Sold for £5,312.50 inc. premium
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Head of Department
The subjects depicted are:
An official and his wife, holding a musical instrument.
A religious devotee, perhaps a Muslim, or perhaps a soothsayer, wearing brightly-coloured clothes, and his wife, holding utensils.
A soldier carrying a spear, and his wife.
A weaver and his wife, holding a distaff for winding thread.
The religious devotee and his wife, in almost identical poses and dress, were the subjects of a Tanjore painting sold in these rooms, Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 30th April 2019, lot 180. The same figures appear once again in a painting in the V&A, dated circa 1780-90 (illustrated in M. Archer, Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period, London 1992, opp. p. 21; see pp. 47-49), where the contemporary British inscription refers to the male figure as A Tadwan or Malabar fortune-teller.