THE FINIAL MYSORE, DECCAN, CIRCA 1787-1797; THE PLINTH CIRCA 1800

Although the image of the royal tiger was used previously by important Indian dynasties such as the Cholas and Hoysalas, it is the extent and variety of usage of tiger motifs and bubri (tiger-stripe) patterns that make the tiger so emblematic of Tipu Sultan (r.1782-1799). The ruler of Mysore, in South India, adopted the symbol of the tiger as a core part of his royal visual identity. The tiger and bubri patttern is associated with all his courtly objects and weapons. Images of tigers and the bubri patterns were employed in architecture of palaces and mosques; on hilts, helmets, armour and cannon; and the uniforms of his personal guard and palace staff (Anne Buddle, The Tiger and the Thistle: Tipu Sultan and the Scots in India 1760-1800, Edinburgh, 1999, pp. 22-25). The ruler is famously quoted as saying it is better “to live two days as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep” (Alexander Beatson, A View of the Origin & Conduct of the War with the Late Tippoo Sultaun, London, 1800, p.153).

In accordance with this symbolic imagery, our tiger is one of eight finials that ornamented the octagonal gold throne commissioned by Tipu Sultan the ‘Tiger of Mysore’. The magnificent throne was dismantled by the British army shortly after the death of Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam with the individual components auctioned off by the Crown Prize Agents. However, we can piece together an understanding of the how the throne would have appeared from the existing fragments, such as this finial, contemporary eye-witness accounts and three contemporary depictions. One of these depictions is a watercolour by Anna Tonelli in 1800, who accompanied Lady Henrietta Clive, wife of Edward, on her trip around South India as governess to the Clive children. The painting (illustrated here) shows an octagonal platform standing on tiger’s legs with eight finials, like ours, around a low balustrade, a large central tiger, and a golden canopy topped with a statue of a bird. The appearance of the throne as shown in Anna Tonelli's watercolour is corroborated matches the account of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Beatson and Major Pulteney Mein, both present at the siege of Seringapatam and is further corroborated by a letter from Lady Clive to her husband.  

A contemporary account by Mir Husayn 'Ali Kirmani, historian to the Mysore Court, writes the following of the throne, “it was a Howdar supported on the back of a Tyger, the solid parts made of heavy black wood, and entirely covered with a coat of the purest sheet gold…wrought in tiger stripes… the floor of the throne about eight feet in length, by five in width, was raised four feet from the ground; and besides the massy Tiger which formed its central support, stood upon richly ornamented uprights of the same material, placed at the outer angles; the ascent onto each side was by a ladder…of solid-silver-gilt … The canopy was formed of a lighter wood, entirely cased with sheet gold in the same manner as the body of the throne and as highly ornamented; with a thick fringe all round it, composed entirely of fine pearls strung on threads of gold. The central part of the roof was surmounted by a most curious and costly figure of the Humah.” (M. Moienuddin, Sunset at Srirangapatam: After the Death of Tipu Sultan, Hyderabad, 2000, p.47).

The throne embodied the intermingling of cultures present at the court of Tipu Sultan and was representative the models of kingship drawn upon beyond the extensive tiger imagery. The throne is said to have contained extensive verses from the Qur’an around the platform and canopy, demonstrative of his position as a Sunni Muslim ruler, albeit with Shi’a leanings (Susan Stronge, 'Gold and Silver’ in Archer, Rowell and Skelton, Treasures from India: The Clive Collection at Powis Castle, London, 1987, p.75). Meanwhile, the method of setting the jewels and their arrangement is closely comparable to South Indian temple jewellery and representative of the Hindu symbols and traditions that would have been familiar to Tipu (Filliozat and Pattabriamin, Parures Divines du Sud de l’Inde, Pondicherry, 1966, pl. XXXIII). Finally, the throne was topped with two important symbols of kingship. The first, the royal parasol canopy, is a symbol of kingship found throughout Indian history, used by both Hindu and Muslim rulers for centuries including the Mughal Emperors. The second, the huma bird, is a mythical phoenix-type bird from the Persianate tradition which is believed to confer kingship to anyone in its shadow.

As recorded by the historian 'Ali Kirmani, Tipu gave orders for a grand throne to be made in 1787 (Kirmani, The History of the Reign of Tipu Sultan being a Continuation of the Neshan Hyduri, London, 1864, p.145). This came after sending an embassy to the Caliph in Rum, Turkey, to apply for permission to declare himself Padshah in the manner of the Mughals, thus legitimising his rule. Doubtless Tipu Sultan would have been aware of Shah Jahan’s magnificent peacock throne that was taken from Delhi by Nadir Shah in 1739. His throne was part of a desire to rival it as an expression of Mysore’s independence rather than a Mughal vassal. A vast throne-mounting ceremony was planned amidst great festivities and an order was even issued in Mysore for the delaying of marriages such that 12,000 could be simultaneously carried out on the day. However, no account of the day itself is known suggesting that it never occurred, perhaps due to the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Mysore War in 1790 (Forrest, Tiger of Mysore. The Life and Death of Tipu Sultan, London 1970, p.215).

From the spectacular original construction, just a handful of components are currently known to exist. Both the spectacularly bejewelled huma bird finial and large gold tiger head from the base are in the British Royal Collection (RCIN 48482 and 67212). Of the original eight tiger-head finials from the railings of the throne four are known, including the present lot. One was given by Lord Wellesley to the second Lady Clive in India and is now in the Clive Collection at Powis Castle (NT 1180713). The second, acquired by Surgeon-Major Pultney-Mein after the battle, was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 19 March 1973, lot 180. A year later it was offered by a London antique dealer as from the collection of Alexander Bowlby of Hampstead, London, but its current whereabouts are unknown. The third, from the collection of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Bowser (1749-1833), sold at Bonhams, London, 7 October 2010, lot 370 (Amin Jaffer and Amina Taha-Hussein Okada, From the Great Mughals to the Maharajas: Jewels from the al-Thani Collection, Paris, 2017, cat. 132, p.176). The present lot, the Wallace Finial, is the fourth. One other finial is referred to by Forrest, although no information is given other than it belonging to a private collection in Cornwall (op cit., p.360).

While the overall design is the same on the all the finials, there are differences in the gem settings and craftsmanship, suggesting that several goldsmiths worked on the throne and its fittings and making each finial a unique work of art. Each finial is manufactured in the same manner of the head being hammered into shape from sheet gold and then filled with lac (resin) to prevent the head collapsing. The gold surface of each is then engraved and gems set into it. The present finial is further differentiated from the other three known finials for its marble stand with pseudo-Arabic inscription. The feet on the stand feel European and yet their execution suggests that the pedestal was made in India, possibly in Madras or Calcutta shortly after the throne was broken up and either before or during the finial entered the possession of Thomas Wallace (Stronge, Bejewelled Treasures: The Al-Thani Collection, London, 2015, p.66).

Our finial comes from the collection of prominent politician Thomas Wallace, 1^st Baron Wallace of Knarsdale (1763-1844). Lord Wallace was appointed the Commissioner for the Affairs of India in 1800 before being serving between 1807 and 1816 as the President of the Board of Control, the government body responsible for overseeing the East India Company. It is not known exactly how the finial entered Lord Wallace’s collection, but it is recorded in the inventory of his family seat, Featherstone Castle in Northumbria, in an 1843 inventory. Listed amongst the contents of the dining room, more attention is given to the black marble stand than the treasure itself which is recorded as an “ornamental lion’s head”. The finial was situated in the castle for at least a century before being moved to a bank vault, only resurfacing to the market when offered at Bonhams, London, 2 April 2009, lot 212.