SET OF FOUR PRINTS CHRONICLING THE DAY-TO-DAY EVENTS IN THE KINGDOM OF MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH

a) Jerah
Later hand-colored engraving on paper
5.25 x 8 in (13.3 x 20.2 cm)
Plate no.16 from Volume 1 of Thirty-Five Years in the East

b) Kar Khana Abkaree
Later hand-colored engraving on paper
5.25 x 8 in (13.3 x 20.4 cm)
Plate no. 2 from Volume 1 of Thirty-Five Years in the East

c) Attar
Later hand-colored engraving on paper
5.25 x 8 in (13.3 x 20.4 cm)
Plate no. 9 from Volume 1 of Thirty-Five Years in the East

d) Sephaee
Later hand-colored engraving on paper
5.25 x 8 in (13.3 x 20.4 cm)
Plate no. 6 from Volume 1 of Thirty-Five Years in the East

The present lot is a fascinating and beautiful illustrative chronicle of day-to-day events in the Sikh kingdom by the Romanian-German Punjabi court physician Johann Martin Honigberger (1795-1869), an unusual but careful and extremely well-placed observer. Among the more established tales of the Sikh establishment at the period, these prints are of tremendously interesting curiosity.

Honigberger, a doctor trained in both conventional and his favoured homoeopathic medicine, was born in Krostadt, Romania, and travelled through the Middle East, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, and on to India. He came in Lahore in 1829 and, after treating Ranjit Singh's favourite horse for an ulcerated leg, acquired the Maharaja's trust, becoming court physician and in command of the gunstock manufactory and gunpowder mills.

He covered not only his everyday life at the court of Lahore, but also the members of the Singh dynasty, politics and warfare, local medical procedures, drug usage, and his day-to-day existence in the Sikh Empire in the current time. The result was a historical sketch of Ranjit Singh's court, supplemented by some of Honigberger's personal reminiscences.

The present lot includes a few of his observations.

(Set of four)

These works will be shipped unframed

NON-EXPORTABLE