The elephant Mamarakh, gouache heightened with gold on paper, the grey elephant wears a green rug and is ridden by his mahout who wears a white tunic and red turban, yellow margin between black rules, red leaf, black devanagari inscription above, verso with another similar inscription, mounted, framed and glazed, Mewar, circa 1750, (very slight flaking and rubbing) - 9¼ x 9¾in. (23.3 x 24.7cm.)

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The elephant Mamarakh, gouache heightened with gold on paper, the grey elephant wears a green rug and is ridden by his mahout who wears a white tunic and red turban, yellow margin between black rules, red leaf, black devanagari inscription above, verso with another similar inscription, mounted, framed and glazed, Mewar, circa 1750, (very slight flaking and rubbing) - 9¼ x 9¾in. (23.3 x 24.7cm.)
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Lot Essay

The inscription on the verso shows the elephant belonged to Maharana Amar Singh of Mewar who ruled from 1698-1710 and who was the son of Maharana Jai Singh.
For similar portraits see: Topsfield, A.: Paintings from Rajesthan in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 1980, pp.128-30, nos 191-5.
The inscriptions read as follows: recto - hathi gaj mamarakh; verso (black) - Maharana-ji Sri Amar Singh-ji ri vari; verso (red) - gaj mumarat. The Rajesthani dictionary to Hindi shows that in dialect mamarakh and mumarat are synonymous with mubarak meaning 'blessed' or 'fortunate'.

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