INDIAN CHARACTERS
Deccan, second half of nineteenth century
18cm and smaller

Forty-three polychrome-painted wood figures, in several groups comprising:
a) A court scene, with British magistrate, seated clerks and defendant accompanied by a warder
b) A street barber, shaving a brahmin, inscribed underneath
c) Two snake charmers and wives, inscribed underneath
d) A zamindar and his wife, inscribed underneath
e) A pair of women grinding flour, inscribed underneath
f) A pair of jugglers, inscribed underneath
g) A British lady in a palanquin, a baby in her arms, with attendants and porters
h) A pair of goldsmiths, inscribed underneath
i) A rajah and his wife, inscribed underneath
j) A cotton worker and his wife, inscribed underneath
k) A pair of tailors, making a large embroidered cloth

Provenance: Private Collection, Cumbria, Northern England

Figures such as these were initially made for educational purposes to be displayed in museums, demonstrating the different castes and occupations of native India, but later they were made as the sculptural equivalent of Company School painting, collected as mementoes of India by the European expatriate community. It is very rare to find such an extensive range of figures.

£ 18000