Indian Works of Art

The highlight of Bonhams’ rescheduled sale of Indian and Islamic art held on June 11 was a group of a nine Company School watercolours with an unbroken provenance back to 1812.

Depiction of Emperor Shah Jahan is thought to have been prepared for his official chronicle.

Views of processions, pageants and parades tend to attract special interest at auction, such as this view of an Indian procession bid to £6800 in Gloucestershire.

Topped by an eight-times estimate £19,500 Momoyama ‘Namban’ cabinet (ATG No 2391), Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s (21% buyer’s premium) sale in Exeter on April 16 had other estimate-busting lots from abroad.

On May 17 Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York, is selling the collection of Indian artefacts from the estate of David Swope of Ossining, NY.

A rifle from the personal armoury of Tipu Sultan sold for £60,000 in Oxfordshire last week.

Historical weapons from the personal armoury of Tipu Sultan will be offered for sale in Oxfordshire in the spring.

Two early examples of Indo- Portuguese furniture sold for five-figure sums at auction this month.

Cirencester saleroom Moore Allen & Innocent (20% buyer’s premium) enjoyed a taste of India’s fast-growing art market when three pictures by the Indian folk artist Jamini Roy (1887-1972) were scooped up for a total of £24,500.

Among several runaway lots at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) Asian Art sale in Dorchester was a 19th century Indian watercolour depicting the Mughal Emperor Akbar II on an elephant.

An 18in (45cm) figure of Shiva Vinadhara c.12th century – £220,000.

Sotheby’s is to return to holding auctions in India to take advantage of the growing wealth in the Asian nation. It plans a sale in December at The Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai.