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Lot Essay
By tradition, this set of Indian-carved wood room panelling is said to have formed part of the Indian courts at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, held at Exhibition Road, South Kensington, the present site of Imperial College, between 4 May and 15 October 1886. The whole of the South Galleries was devoted to India and Ceylon [Sri Lanka], with prominent structures such as the Indian Palace, Durbar Hall, Jeypore [Japipur] Gateway, Baroda Pigeon House, Hydrabad Screen and Gwalior Gateway made by Indian craftsmen, and divided by carved screens ‘of a great variety of patterns constructed in wood or stone’ (ed. F. Cundall, Reminiscences of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London, 1886, pp. 19-24).
At the close of the Exhibition, when the buildings were dismantled, the Durbar Hall, which had been devised by the architect and museum curator, Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke (1846-1911), and executed by Muhammad Baksh and Muhammad Juma, two skilled craftsmen from Bhera Shahpur in the West Punjab, and other carved work, was acquired by Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey (1836-1918), who had been one of the Royal Commissioners responsible for the Exhibition (J. Manwaring Baines, The Durbar Hall and The Brassey Collections, Hastings, 1936). He planned to create a museum at his house at 24 Park Lane, which would be open to the public, dedicated to the collections that he and his wife, Annie (1839-87), had amassed on their extensive circumnavigation of the globe in their private yacht, Sunbeam. The floor plan at Park Lane differed considerably from the exhibition space, and the Indian paneling had to be re-erected under the supervision of the photographer, Alfred Maskell. The lower rooms comprised a lounge and smoke-room, and an upper gallery housed the collection of specimens.
In 1919, the second Lord Brassey (1863-1919) presented most of the carvings and the family collection to the borough of Hastings, but it was not until 1931 that it was re-erected yet again as an extension to the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery. Interestingly, the booklet to accompany the display referred to the addition of screens from other courts from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, and ‘a certain amount of work of corresponding character executed in London’ (ibid., p. 3).
It is possible that the carved panels offered here are also from the first Lord Brassey’s collection as the dates correspond when the panels were dismantled from Park Lane, and when they were installed in a turreted music room at Treetops, near Rickmansworth in 1916 where they remained until 1987 when the house was demolished.
However, not all the extensive and varied paneling from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition was purchased by Lord Brassey, and it is equally possible that the Treetops panels were acquired by another 19th century connoisseur following the closure of the exhibition. At least two pieces acquired directly from the exhibition are held in the Victoria & Albert Museum; a chased copper door with moulded ornamentation (IS.121-1886) and a teak wood panel inlaid with brass (IS.109-1886) while the Jeypore Gateway now belongs to the Hove Museum, Sussex.
At the close of the Exhibition, when the buildings were dismantled, the Durbar Hall, which had been devised by the architect and museum curator, Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke (1846-1911), and executed by Muhammad Baksh and Muhammad Juma, two skilled craftsmen from Bhera Shahpur in the West Punjab, and other carved work, was acquired by Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey (1836-1918), who had been one of the Royal Commissioners responsible for the Exhibition (J. Manwaring Baines, The Durbar Hall and The Brassey Collections, Hastings, 1936). He planned to create a museum at his house at 24 Park Lane, which would be open to the public, dedicated to the collections that he and his wife, Annie (1839-87), had amassed on their extensive circumnavigation of the globe in their private yacht, Sunbeam. The floor plan at Park Lane differed considerably from the exhibition space, and the Indian paneling had to be re-erected under the supervision of the photographer, Alfred Maskell. The lower rooms comprised a lounge and smoke-room, and an upper gallery housed the collection of specimens.
In 1919, the second Lord Brassey (1863-1919) presented most of the carvings and the family collection to the borough of Hastings, but it was not until 1931 that it was re-erected yet again as an extension to the Hastings Museum & Art Gallery. Interestingly, the booklet to accompany the display referred to the addition of screens from other courts from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, and ‘a certain amount of work of corresponding character executed in London’ (ibid., p. 3).
It is possible that the carved panels offered here are also from the first Lord Brassey’s collection as the dates correspond when the panels were dismantled from Park Lane, and when they were installed in a turreted music room at Treetops, near Rickmansworth in 1916 where they remained until 1987 when the house was demolished.
However, not all the extensive and varied paneling from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition was purchased by Lord Brassey, and it is equally possible that the Treetops panels were acquired by another 19th century connoisseur following the closure of the exhibition. At least two pieces acquired directly from the exhibition are held in the Victoria & Albert Museum; a chased copper door with moulded ornamentation (IS.121-1886) and a teak wood panel inlaid with brass (IS.109-1886) while the Jeypore Gateway now belongs to the Hove Museum, Sussex.