Maharajah Ranjit Singh, after Emily Eden, from Portraits of the Princes and People of India

J. Dickinson & Son, London, 1844

Footnotes

Plate 13 from a rare coloured first edition, probably one of only a handful of copies published in this form, of Portraits of the Princes & People of India.

Emily Eden (1797-1869) accompanied her brother, Lord Auckland, to India in 1836 when he was Governor-General. They stayed in Calcutta at first, but then between October 1837 and February 1840 toured through Oudh and the hill regions. They visited (along with their sister, Fanny) the court of Ranjit Singh in 1838 at what was perhaps its high point, though it was soon to fall into internecine and murderous faction fighting. Eden recorded her impression both in writing, in an extensive collection of letters, and in sketches, which on her return to England in 1842 she worked up and then had printed privately as a set of 24 lithographs. The Portraits was published in 1844 in four parts in wrappers. Most were in monochrome except for a few beautifully hand-coloured copies, of which the present lot is one. Her written accounts were also published as Up the Country: Letters written to her sister from the Upper Provinces of India by the Hon. Emily Eden, 1866.

The original accompanying letterpress to this print is as follows:

The late MAHA RAJA RUNJEET SINGH.
The Print represents this well-known Chieftain, in his usual attitude and dress, during his interviews with the Governor General of India, in November and December, 1838. He retained a perfect simplicity, or rather plainness of appearance, while his Chiefs and Courtiers around him wore the most brilliant draperies, and a rich profusion of jewels. His manners were always quiet, and he spoke chiefly in endless desultory questions; among which, as if without premeditation, or particular interest in it, he introduced the one which was of importance to him. At the time at which this likeness was taken, he was partially paralized, and he said but few words to his attendants; guiding the order of his Durbar or Court, and even the movements of his troops, mainly by signs made with his forefinger, the motions of which were watched by a number of his confidential personal servants, who remained always near him. He had a curious and constant trick, while sitting and engaged in conversation, of raising one of his legs under him on the chair, which he used in compliance with the customs of his European visitors, and then pulling off the stocking from that foot. He had the use only of one eye, which age, and a hard life of exposure and excesses, had dimmed at the period now spoken of, but it still retained the traces of the vigour and penetration for which he was remarkable.