gems, India, maharajas, maharajahs

A volume of hand-coloured lithographs of sketches made in India by Emily Eden, a correspondent of Queen Victoria and the sister of Lord Auckland. Eden's fine portraits and textual descriptions in the Portraits record the Indian rulers, and often their families, with whom Lord Auckland met during his term of office as Governor-General. The first period of their stay in India was spent in Calcutta and from October 1837 to February 1840 Lord Auckland and his entourage toured through the Upper Provinces, meeting with Indian princely subjects. Amongst those encountered and portrayed by Eden during these tours were the Maharaja Sher-Singh, King of the Punjab, the Maharaja Ranjit Singh, The Raja of Nahun, the Raja of Patiala, and the Raja Hira Singh, son of the Prime Minister of the Punjab. Fanny Parks, travelling in India between 1822 and 1845, found Eden's sketches from this period to be 'most spirited and masterly.' The richness and splendour of these Indian figures and their entourages are captured by Eden, particularly in the plates relating to the bejewelled horses from the Maharaja's stable, and the elephants, dogs, hawks and hunting leopards sent to accompany Lord Auckland by the King of Oudh. Eden did not only confine her portraits to those of Indian princes or those of high castes. The twenty-eight images also include servants attached to Government House, members of their families, together with religious devotees, Pathans, Tibetans and others. This book is exceptionally rare, with a copy auctioned in 2023 for over £30,000.