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Lot Essay
These fives studies are identified as follow: 'N 17 Chilli Peper', 'N 20 Sem', 'N 2 Sem Sahra'i[?]' and 'N 4 Tel Phetana'.
The East India Company founded its trading centres in India in the early 17th century but it was not until the second half of the 18th century that East India Company employees began to commission Mughal trained artists to produce watercolours to English taste, thus creating what is now known as Company School painting. Among the most beautiful are the early natural history drawings of Indian fauna and flora. Menageries and botanical gardens were established in Calcutta and Madras at the end of the 18th century and exquisite illustrations of their animal, plant and bird life were commissioned by such patrons as Sir Elijah and Lady Impey, the Marquess Wellesley and Lady Clive.
Similar illustrations, although slightly larger in format, were probably originally part of the Rind album, see for instance three watercolours that sold at Christie's South Kensington, 23 April 2012, lot 343, 344 and 345. For a discussion on Major James Nathaniel Rind (d.1813) see lot 119 in this sale. Ten botanical studies from the same series as the present examples sold at Christie's South Kensington, 11 April 2013, lot 126 and 127.
The East India Company founded its trading centres in India in the early 17th century but it was not until the second half of the 18th century that East India Company employees began to commission Mughal trained artists to produce watercolours to English taste, thus creating what is now known as Company School painting. Among the most beautiful are the early natural history drawings of Indian fauna and flora. Menageries and botanical gardens were established in Calcutta and Madras at the end of the 18th century and exquisite illustrations of their animal, plant and bird life were commissioned by such patrons as Sir Elijah and Lady Impey, the Marquess Wellesley and Lady Clive.
Similar illustrations, although slightly larger in format, were probably originally part of the Rind album, see for instance three watercolours that sold at Christie's South Kensington, 23 April 2012, lot 343, 344 and 345. For a discussion on Major James Nathaniel Rind (d.1813) see lot 119 in this sale. Ten botanical studies from the same series as the present examples sold at Christie's South Kensington, 11 April 2013, lot 126 and 127.