Live Auction 22675Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets
A COMPANY SCHOOL ALBUM OF PAINTINGS OF INDIAN DEITIES
Lot 118

A COMPANY SCHOOL ALBUM OF PAINTINGS OF INDIAN DEITIES

TRICHINOPOLY, SOUTH INDIA, MID-19TH CENTURY AND LATER

Closed25 April 2024

Estimate

GBP 6,000–8,000

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A COMPANY SCHOOL ALBUM OF PAINTINGS OF INDIAN DEITIES
TRICHINOPOLY, SOUTH INDIA, MID-19TH CENTURY AND LATER
Comprising 41 illustrations of Indian deities, plus four flyleaves, the first group of six illustrations, opaque pigments on plain paper, the second group of twenty-four illustrations, transparent pigments on 'J. Whatman' watermarked paper, within a single black rule, neat English inscriptions identifying each deity, some with identification also in neat black devanagri script, some with short description, the third group of eleven illustrations, black ink and wash on plain paper, some identified in pencil in English, each folio numbered in pencil and mounted into later album by the four corners, interleaving papers, in red morocco
Illustrations each 8 1/8 x 6in. (20.5 x 16cm.) approx.; album 9 7/8 x 7in. (25 x 18cm.)

Specialist note


This album of Company School paintings is done in the style of the South Indian Trichinopoly (Tiruchirappalli) School. The album can be divided into three distinct groups of illustrations, the middle group being the largest and each with an accompanying identificatory inscription in devanagari script (sometimes transliterated) and English. Inscriptions in tamil rather than devanagari script would be more expected for South Indian works of art raising the possibility that the inscriptions were added later. The first and last groups are comparable in style to two albums of South Indian illustrations of deities in the British Museum, London (1962,1231,0.12 and 1992,0410,0.1). An album of 45 illustrations of Indian deities was sold in these Rooms 13 June 2002, lot 83.