The 61 paintings, bound in a single album c.1850, go under the hammer at the August 3 sale of antiques, furnishings and collectors’ items. The works are estimated at £200-300 and have been passed down through the family of the local vendor.
European officers and their families who were stationed in India during the 18th and 19th centuries frequently commissioned works by native artists as records of the traditional way of life and the natural world. The paintings that resulted are known as Company School works and take India’s landscape, wildlife, people and customs as their subjects.
The works on offer at the sale are painted on mica or talc and represent the lives of domestic servants, traditional ceremonies and trades and scenes of boats on the Ganges.
