Indian Drawings 18 (The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester)

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Persian Manuscripts

The first of two albums, with Indian Drawings 21, of disparate South Asian paintings, portraits, and calligraphy specimens.

Contents

Summary of Contents: This album contains primarily thirty-five paintings of primarily South Asian subjects together with a few specimens of Arabic and Persian calligraphy. Many folios bear the seal impression of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809), who served as Chief Justice in Calcutta. Acquired by former owner Alexander Lindsay as a parcel of sixty-two folios, he subsequently selected, arranged, and had them bound in two volumes, together with Indian Drawings 21.
Title: Album of Primarily South Asian Painting and Persian Calligraphy
Artist: Various Artists
Language(s): Primarily paintings with no linguistic content, together with several in Persian and Hindustani
Folio 1a
Title: Rustam engaged in battle
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 175 × 195 mm.
Interior Margin: 212 × 222 mm.

Landscape, rotated 90º counter-clockwise. Bears cut and pasted gold embossed applied borders.

Folio 2a
Title: Elephant combat
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 199 × 241 mm.
Interior Margin: 222 × 264 mm.

Landscape, rotated 90º counter-clockwise. The applied black margins recall other album mounts now in the Bodleian.

Folio 3a
Title: Hunting Scene
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 234 × 196 mm.
Interior Margin: 273 × 225 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. The applied bright red margins recall other album mounts now in the Bodleian.

Folio 4a
Title: Couple Hunting
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 202 × 146 mm.
Interior Margin: 175 × 234 mm. Intermediate Margin: 185 × 245 mm. Exterior Margin: 220 × 280 mm.

Landscape, rotated 90º counter-clockwise. Pencilled inscription.

Folio 5a
Title: A Mughal prince hunts on horseback
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 178 × 223 mm.
Interior Margin: 255 × 198 mm. Intermediate Margin: 283 × 228 mm. Exterior Margin: 234 × 290 mm.

Landscape, rotated 90º counter-clockwise. Pencilled inscription.

Folio 6a
Title: An Indian woman waters a plant
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 160 × 108 mm.
Interior Margin: 190 × 150 mm. Intermediate Margin: 292 × 238 mm. Exterior Margin: 297 × 242 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

Folio 7a
Title: Angels visit an ascetic
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 215 × 153 mm.
Interior Margin: 271 × 210 mm. Intermediate Margin: 279 × 217 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. A very finely rendered scene, clearly inspired by Christian imagery.

Folio 8a
Title: A group of men appear overcome by a poetry recital
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 265 × 208 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. A very finely rendered scene.

Folio 9a
Title: Āsādarī, a female ascetic, holds a cobra
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 245 × 144 mm.
Interior Margin: 297 × 196 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

Folio 10a
Title: Scene from the Rāmāyaṇa

Rāma and Sītā enthroned receive Hanumān

Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 258 × 188 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. The first of five depictions of Hindu deities and mythical creatures by the same painter.

Folio 11a
Title: Vishnu rides Garuda while his multiple arms bear various weapons
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 250 × 177 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. The second of five depictions of Hindu deities by the same painter. An English note on the reverse misidentifies the portrait as ‘Seneacher who answers to the god Saturn the English of the above being Saturn day or Saturday- worshipped by the Indoos’.

Folio 12a
Title: Portrait of Ganga
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 252 × 183 mm.
Interior Margin: 313 × 238 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. The third of five depictions of Hindu deities and mythical creatures by the same painter. A note in English on the reverse identifies the subject as ‘Ram Gunga, the Goddess of the Ganges, worshipped by the Indoos’.

Folio 13a
Title: Portrait of Chinnamastā
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 257 × 181 mm.
Interior Margin: 313 × 242 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. The fourth of five depictions of Hindu deities and mythical creatures by the same painter. A note in English on the reverse identifies the subject as ‘Ganganese, the Goddes of revenege, worshipped by the Indoos’.

Folio 14a
Title: A deer-headed dīv leads a composite horse
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 186 × 253 mm.
Interior Margin: 245 × 313 mm.

Landscape, rotated 90º counter-clockwise. The fifth of five depictions of Hindu deities and mythical creatures by the same painter. An English note on the reverse describes it as ‘Sureege ke Gouna a symbolic representation of the Sun and the 12 signs of the zodiac as worshipped by the Indoos’.

Folio 15a
Title: Portrait of Gangajī
Artist: Anonymous

Painting: 273 × 190 mm.
Interior Margin: 315 × 225 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

16a
Title: Kahan Jiv Bish Rup

260 × 190 mm. Interior Margin: 302 × 230 mm.

Portrait format, mounted vertically. Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

17a
Title: Krishna plays flute for Radha

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

285 × 197 mm. Interior Margin: 319 × 228 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

18a
Title: Krishna plays flute for Radha

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

260 × 182 mm. Interior Margin: 313 × 228 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

19a
Title: Krishna plays flute at Ras Mandal

Landscape format, rotated 90º counter-clockwise.

212 × 290 mm. Interior Margin: 242 × 317 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

20a
Title: Krishna plays flute against a tall tree

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

300 × 225 mm. Interior Margin: 325 × 248 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

21a
Title: Rag Pahrū

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

232 × 154 mm. Interior Margin: 275 × 194 mm. Intermediate Margin: 318 × 230 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

22a
Title: Rama enthroned

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

295 × 203 mm. Interior Margin: 322 × 228 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

23a
Title: Muẓaffar Dil Khān Bahādur

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

275 × 200 mm. Interior Margin: 311 × 233 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

24a
Title: Nawwāb Ghār al-Dīn Khān

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

233 × 168 mm. Interior Margin: 316 × 235 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.. Wordham?

25a
Title: Chained elephant and mahout

Landscape format, rotated 90º counter-clockwise.

145 × 233 mm. Interior Margin: 317 × 241 mm.

Four applied borders. Numbered 11 on reverse.

26a
Title: study of a gemstone carved with elephants in combat.

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

4 × 6 mm. Interior Margin: 15 × 14 mm. Intermediate Margin: 178 × 108 mm. Exterior Margin: 217 × 135 mm. 315 × 238 mm.

Tiny jewel study.Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

27a
Title: Deccani nobleman

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

155 × 102 mm. Mount 317 × 228 mm.

Applied embossed silver borders. Impey seal.

27b
Title: Quote of
Author: Zamakhshari

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

148 × 106 mm. Mount 317 × 228 mm.

eal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809).

28a
Title: Mughal scholar and prince

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

140 × 102 mm. Interior Margin: 162 × 128 mm. Mount 315 × 243 mm.

Handle with caution. Upper surface delaminating from mount.

29a
Title: Mughal ruler- Babur?

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

218 × 135 mm. Interior Margin: 240 × 158 mm. Intermediate Margin: 312 × 217 mm. Mount 323 × 239 mm.

29b
Title: Calligraphy by ‘Abd al-Rahm Haravi 1009 AH

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

166 × 81 mm. Interior Margin: 185 × 110 mm. Mount 323 × 239 mm.

Impey seal. Gold-flecked mount appears similar to 11a.

30a
Title: A seated Princess smokes a hookah, while her attendants watch

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

205 × 150 mm. Interior Margin: 228 × 177 mm. Mount 318 × 240 mm.

Two small seals on reverse, one illegible, possibly a talisman as it's backwards? 9 x 11. sencond of Muzaffar Khan Bahadur 12 x 14.

31a
Title: Portrait of Nādir Shāh

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

229 × 156 mm. Interior Margin: 294 × 228 mm. Mount 325 × 236 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse. Also possibly signed ‘Sir J. Sykes’(?).

32a
Title: Warrior slays a rhinocerous

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

285 × 180 mm. Mount 324 × 248 mm.

Cut and applied mettalic embossed borders.

33a
Title: Warrior bids farewell

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

201 × 142 mm. Mount 343 × 248 mm. Intermediate Margin: 315 × 238 mm. Exterior Margin: 338 × 256 mm.

34a
Title: Prince and princess hawking encounter maidens by a river

Landscape format, rotated 90º counter-clockwise.

228 × 298 mm. Interior Margin: 242 × 312 mm.

35a
Title: Prince and princess by an outdoor pool

Portrait format, mounted vertically.

295 × 202 mm. Interior Margin: 326 × 238 mm.

Seal of Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) impressed upon the reverse.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support:
Extent: 35 folios, 4 flyleaves (ff. ii + 35 + ii).
Dimensions (leaf): 332 × 270 mm.
Foliation: Pencilled Arabic numerals inscribed on the lower-right corners of most a sides.

Collation

Undetermined due to oversewing. No catchwords

Condition

Handle folios with caution: Beware of extensive tears to the interleaving, especially at head and tail. Some areas chipped and abraded at the edges.

Binding

Uniformly bound in Britain together with Indian Drawings 21 for former owner Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880).

Individual folios attached with white cambric strips, with thin white wove interleaving, and compensation guards of camrbic in the gutters laminated with heavy-weight, heavily flocked, European machine-manufactured blue paper, with the same added as endpapers to the beginning and end. Oversewn on five recessed cords laced into pasteboards. Edges untrimmed, with white and black front-bead decorative endbands sewn at head and tail. Covered in half medium brown goastkin leather, hollow-backed, with spattered decorated paper sides. without a flap (Type III binding per Déroche).

Spine pan elas palleted with thick single filllet lines in blind with thin lines in gold on either side. Lettered:
‘INDIAN
DRAWINGS’
in gold with a small paper label underneath numbered ‘Nº 21>’.

338 × 281 × 52 mm.

Handle binding with caution. In fair but stable condition with extensive abrasion and grain layer delamination of the exterior leather.

Seal(s):

Rectangular seal impressions, intaglio carved in nasta‘līq script in two stacked lines, double-ruled, of former owner Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809), dated 1775, along with a regnal year 16 of George III, King of Great Britain (b. 1738, r. 1760–1820) reads from bottom upwards:
‘ سر ایلاجه ایمپی چیف جستس سنه ۱۶، ۱۷۷۵
(Sir Īlāhah Īmpī Chīf Justis, sanah 16, 1775).’
Dimensions: 19 × 26 mm.

History

Origin: The folios originate from different sources, with a majority probbly detached from an album assembled for, or acquired by Sir Elijah Impey (1732–1809) in Calcutta (Kolkata); between 1774 to 1783 CE, as per his seal impression on 3b. Impey served as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, where he amassed a considerable collection, before he returned to Britain and passed away.

Provenance and Acquisition

London firm of Harry Phillips (d. 1840) sold Impey's collection 21 May 1810; however, others in India also acquired albums and folios from him both prior to—and possibly after—his return to Britain, so whether this volume sold at that sale, possibly separated from a larger one, remains unclear.

Evidently later obtained by scholar Nathaniel Bland (1803–1865) for his library at Randalls Park, Leatherhead.

After Bland's death, London bookseller Bernard Quaritch (1819–1899) sold his oriental manuscripts to Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1812–1880) in June, 1866, paid in two instalments of £450 and £400, and then moved to Bibliotheca Lindesiana at Haigh Hall, Wigan. He likely selected and arranged the contents of the parcel and had them bound in two volumes, together with Indian Drawings 18.

Purchased by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1901 from James Ludovic Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford (1847–1913).

Bequeathed by Enriqueta Rylands (1843–1908) in 1908 to the John Rylands Library, Manchester.

Record Sources

Bibliographical description based on a manuscript catalogue by Michael Kerney, circa 1890s.

Manuscript description by Jake Benson in 2026 with reference to the volume in hand.

Availability

To book an in-person or online appointment to consult the manuscript, visit Using the Special Collections Reading Rooms. For any other enquiries please email uml.special-collections@manchester.ac.uk.

Bibliography

Funding of Cataloguing

The John Rylands Research Institute

The Soudavar Memorial Foundation

Subjects

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