Dec 10 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2689 -
/

Sale 2689 - Lot 195

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(BRITISH MILITARY -- INDIAN MUTINY OF 1857.) [A Week With the Camel Corps]. 21 ink, wash, and watercolor sketches mounted to larger album leaves, most captioned and dated. Small folio, 13x8½ inches, contemporary gilt-blocked cloth boards, spine lost, upper cover detached; original blue stiff paper wrappers with manuscript title bound in; a few small stains, light foxing to the mounts. Np, October 26 - November 6, 1858
Request Condition Report Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

The Camel Corps was formed in Lucknow in April 1858 to support soldiers of the British East India Company in pursuit of outlying rebels during the Indian mutiny of 1857. The Corps of mounted infantry under command of Major John Ross was short-lived and disbanded in June 1860. The present suite of sketches provides a rare contemporary glimpse into this period of colonial history on the Indian subcontinent.

Bound in: a 6-page contemporary manuscript copy of an official letter in Urdu proclaiming British rule in India, signed in the text by East India Company director George Frederick Edmonstone. Several other mounted manuscript passages and letters appear, including both sides of an envelope addressed to Major Arthur Nixon which was annotated by several different hands in Urdu as the letter was being forwarded to him. Interestingly, the final drawing is captioned "Arthur and the Camel Corps Nov/58".

Also in This Catalogue