Indian Works of Art

The spring and autumn traditionally turn the London spotlight on Islamic and Indian works of art. This year there are specialist sales at five auction houses in March and April: Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams, Chiswick Auctions and Roseberys. Pictured here are some highlights together with associated works of art from mixed-discipline sales.

Two signed watercolours by the Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain (1913-2011) will be on sale at Bruneau & Co of Cranston, Rhode Island, on February 21.

One of the highlights of the April 2007 London Islamic sale series had been this 2ft 4in (74cm) high white marble bust of Maharajah Duleep Singh by neoclassical sculptor John Gibson.

Bezoars (from the Persian pād-zahr meaning ‘poison antidote’) are the calcified concretion found in the stomachs of some animals. Prized for their supposed medicinal properties, until the Enlightenment science at the beginning of the 18th century they could sell for more than their weight in gold.

On November 25 Ader will hold a sale of Indian and Islamic Art and Antiquities that is billed as a homage to Marie-Christine David, a specialist in this field who worked with the firm for 10 years.

This 19th century painting illustrates a scene from the Devi Mahatmya, a famous Sanskrit text centred on the figure of the Hindu mother goddess Devi.

Asian antique jewellery specialist Sue Ollemans offers this Indian pair of early 19th century earrings made in Lucknow.

The Islamic and Indian Art sale at Chiswick Auctions on October 29 includes this gilt and painted shield made in north-western India (possibly Rajasthan) in the first half of the 18th century.

Made from fired clay, this 12in (30cm) high bust head of a bodhisattva comes from a little explored group of sculptures found at Hund, a small township on the ancient site of Udabhandapura in Pakistan, once the capital of the Hindu Shahi kingdom.

This 3ft 5in (1.03m) buff sandstone figure of a male chauri (fan) bearer from 9th-11th century central India, possibly Rajasthan, forms part of Dreweatts’ Asian Art Part 2 sale in Donnington Priory on November 11.

Propped up against a huge bolster and bedecked in jewels sits Navneetpriyaji, one of the child manifestations of the Hindu deity Krishna.

Made from green chlorite mineral rather than bronze, this 8th century Kashmiri sculpture group represents the Hindu god Vishnu with his two attendants, Gadadevi and Chakrapurusha.

A mount to an ‘Indian school’ ink wash offered by Cuttlestones in Penkridge on September 2 read simply 'G Tagore'.

Interest in the exquisitely detailed ornithological paintings produced by Indian artists from the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries has grown significantly over the last few decades.

A highlight at Millon on June 14 is a miniature painted with a double portrait of the Mughal emperors Shah Jahan and his son and successor Aurangzeb.