Set of two prints from H H Wilson`s `The Oriental Portfolio`

a) Louis Haghe, after James Stephanoff
A Nautch in the Palace of the Ameer of Sind
1841
Lithograph on paper
11.75 x 14 in (30 x 35.5 cm)

"This is plate four from HH Wilson's 'The Oriental Portfolio'. The view is based on drawings made by Captain Melville Grindlay of an interview between the British embassy in India and the rulers of Sind in 1808. Grindlay accompanied the embassy from Bombay on their mission to counteract French "intrigues" and frustrate their secret negotiations with Persia and the Afghan states bordering India.

Sind was governed by a "princely triumvirate" consisting of three brothers named Gholam, Kureem and Meer Moorhad Ali. Most of the figures in this plate are portraits of the individuals present: "the whole scene...represented with fidelity".

The principal personage is Meer Moorhad Ali, the youngest of the brothers and the present occupant of the throne. "The locale is his private palace or anderoon, where an entertainment is given to his friend, who is seated by him, and surrounded by attendants. The danseuse was a celebrated artiste, named Misree Khana [literally, 'Storehouse of sweets']", a large-eyed beauty "with a rather fair complexion...The voice of Misree Khana was sweet and powerful, and of great compass...The accompaniment was performed on two or three of the native violins...A single addition to this stage accompaniment was produced by the seated performer, who has two small drums before him." (Source: British Library Board)

b) W Gauci after David Roberts, after Thomas Bacon
Scene in the Zenana at Futtehpore Sikri
1841
Lithograph on paper
16 x 10.5 in (41 x 27 cm)

"Plate three from HH Wilson's 'The Oriental Portfolio'. In Wilson's words: "The principal object of notice at Futtehpore Sikri in the Durgah, or tomb of the saint, Sheikh Selim Chishtee, to the efficacy of whose prayers Akbur ascribed the birth of his son and successor, Selim, afterwards known as Jehangir...East and north of the Durgah, inclosed with stone walls, five or six miles in length, and diversified with battlements and towers, in the space formerly occupied by the emperor and his nobility and still strewed over to a great extent with the vestiges of princely dwellings...The ruins are very extensive, and present considerable variety of purpose as well as construction; thus we have a hall of audience, a sleeping chamber, stables, bath, a caravan serai, a royal race-stand, and different mahals or apartments of the emperor's wives. One of these is represented in the accompanying view, and displays the mixture of Mohammedan and Hindoo styles...These mahals are assigned, by local tradition,...to specific individuals, and we may have here the apartments of the fair daughter of Raja Birbul, the favourite associate of Akbur." (Source: British Library Board)

(Set of two)

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