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Lot Essay
The emerald is inscribed with the name and titles:
Imtiyaz al-Dawla Iftikhar al-Mulk Anthony Polier Bahadur Arslan Jang 1188
Colonel Antoine Louis Henri Polier (1741-95) was an adventurer working for first the French and then the English East India Companies. Of Swiss Protestant origin from Lausanne, he joined the English Company after the defeat of the French in southern India. In 1761 he became a Captain Lieutenant in the Company's Engineers. Although promoted to Major in 1767, he found further promotion blocked by the Company's ruling against officers of foreign extraction rising further in its service. Warren Hastings (Governor-General of Bengal, 1773-84) arranged for him to go to Awadh to work as engineer and architect to the Nawab Shuja al-Dawla (1754-75) at the court in Faizabad. Driven from his post through the machinations of Hastings's enemies on the Council in Calcutta, Polier took refuge in the service of the Mughal emperor in Delhi, but was able to return to Awadh in 1780, after Hastings had regained control of his Council, to serve the new Nawab Asaf al-Dawla (1775-97) in Lucknow, the former capital of the province. In Awadh and Delhi, Polier collected spectacularly well both 17th and 18th Century Indian miniatures as well as Persian and other Indian manuscripts. He both collected the best antique work he could find, as well as commissioning new work principally through his favoured retained artist Mihr Chand who was largely responsible for arranging the layout and decoration of the albums made for his collection of paintings. After his return to Europe 1789, Polier sold most of his albums to the collector William Beckford, whence they found their way to Hamilton Palace and then, via auction in these Rooms, to Berlin. Other albums were dispersed from the collection earlier. For a well-illustrated discussion of the albums please see Volkmar Enderlein, Indische Albumblätter, Leipzig and Weimar, 1979.
As befits a man of such artistic appreciation, the nasta'liq on this seal is very fine indeed. It is also interesting to note that, in the atmosphere in India at the time, strongly controlled as it was by the British, Polier has anglicised his first name on the seal.
Imtiyaz al-Dawla Iftikhar al-Mulk Anthony Polier Bahadur Arslan Jang 1188
Colonel Antoine Louis Henri Polier (1741-95) was an adventurer working for first the French and then the English East India Companies. Of Swiss Protestant origin from Lausanne, he joined the English Company after the defeat of the French in southern India. In 1761 he became a Captain Lieutenant in the Company's Engineers. Although promoted to Major in 1767, he found further promotion blocked by the Company's ruling against officers of foreign extraction rising further in its service. Warren Hastings (Governor-General of Bengal, 1773-84) arranged for him to go to Awadh to work as engineer and architect to the Nawab Shuja al-Dawla (1754-75) at the court in Faizabad. Driven from his post through the machinations of Hastings's enemies on the Council in Calcutta, Polier took refuge in the service of the Mughal emperor in Delhi, but was able to return to Awadh in 1780, after Hastings had regained control of his Council, to serve the new Nawab Asaf al-Dawla (1775-97) in Lucknow, the former capital of the province. In Awadh and Delhi, Polier collected spectacularly well both 17th and 18th Century Indian miniatures as well as Persian and other Indian manuscripts. He both collected the best antique work he could find, as well as commissioning new work principally through his favoured retained artist Mihr Chand who was largely responsible for arranging the layout and decoration of the albums made for his collection of paintings. After his return to Europe 1789, Polier sold most of his albums to the collector William Beckford, whence they found their way to Hamilton Palace and then, via auction in these Rooms, to Berlin. Other albums were dispersed from the collection earlier. For a well-illustrated discussion of the albums please see Volkmar Enderlein, Indische Albumblätter, Leipzig and Weimar, 1979.
As befits a man of such artistic appreciation, the nasta'liq on this seal is very fine indeed. It is also interesting to note that, in the atmosphere in India at the time, strongly controlled as it was by the British, Polier has anglicised his first name on the seal.