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Lot Essay
The centrepiece illustrates an incident during the battle of Maharajpoor on December 29th 1843 during the Gwalior campaign where the British faced the forces of Maharaja Scindiah. Captain Arthur William FitzRoy Somerset (1816-1845), elder son of Lord FitzRoy Somerset was riding through a maize field with General Churchill when they were set upon by two Mahrattas. The General was mortally wounded but Arthur Somerset killed one of the assailants and disarmed the other. During this encounter he sustained three sabre cuts to his left arm, a musket shot through his right arm and was wounded in both legs. His father commissioned this centrepiece as a memento of this courageous event and the tulwar which he captured in this encounter was sent home (lot 87).
Arthur Somerset died of his wounds after the battle of Ferozeshah in the Punjab, on Christmas Day, 1845 and his name appears on the Guards Officers Memorial at the Royal Military Chapel, Wellington Barracks.
Edmund Cotterell (1795-1860) was the sculptor in charge of Garrard's designs from 1833. He helped establish their reputation for producing elaborate sculptural groups and centrepieces in bronze and silver, with equestrian, Moorish or Arab themes. He attended the Royal Academy Schools in 1820 and exhibited at the Academy from 1822 until 1858; at the British Institution from 1832 to 1855; and at the Suffolk Street Galleries in from 1829 until 1836. In 1851 he travelled through Europe with the artist David Roberts (1796-1864). They toured Italy having visited Brussels, and journeyed through Germany and Switzerland, lingering in Basle and Lucerne. See lot 78 for an equestrian group of Wellington designed by him and retailed by Garrard.
Arthur Somerset died of his wounds after the battle of Ferozeshah in the Punjab, on Christmas Day, 1845 and his name appears on the Guards Officers Memorial at the Royal Military Chapel, Wellington Barracks.
Edmund Cotterell (1795-1860) was the sculptor in charge of Garrard's designs from 1833. He helped establish their reputation for producing elaborate sculptural groups and centrepieces in bronze and silver, with equestrian, Moorish or Arab themes. He attended the Royal Academy Schools in 1820 and exhibited at the Academy from 1822 until 1858; at the British Institution from 1832 to 1855; and at the Suffolk Street Galleries in from 1829 until 1836. In 1851 he travelled through Europe with the artist David Roberts (1796-1864). They toured Italy having visited Brussels, and journeyed through Germany and Switzerland, lingering in Basle and Lucerne. See lot 78 for an equestrian group of Wellington designed by him and retailed by Garrard.