A portrait of Dakoo, a Jath aged 108 years, by a Master Artist working for William Fraser, India, Haryana, Rania, circa 1816

In the Collection of William (1784-1835) and James Fraser (1783-1856)

By direct descent to Malcolm R. Fraser Esq

Sotheby's, New York, 9 December 1980, lot 143

Sotheby's London, 3 October 2012, lot 96

M. Archer and T. Falk, India Revealed. The art and adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, London, 1989, no.109, p.118

This is one of the original watercolours commissioned by William Fraser that formed the most important group within his collection, and constituted a major addition to the known corpus of so-called Company School painting when they were discovered in 1979.

The four separate inscriptions on the painting and the two cover papers present interesting evidence for the process of William Fraser's commissions and collecting, and for his father's sorting and organising of the collection when it returned to Scotland. The pencil inscription on the watercolour itself is in Persian and is written almost certainly written by a Persian or Indian hand. However, the grammatical structure (or lack of) might indicate that it was written down as a dictation from someone speaking in English, perhaps William Fraser. The pencil inscription on the inside of the cover paper is in William's own hand. The numbering on the outside of the cover paper are the original numbers applied by William when arranging the pages in his album. These give the number 21. After the paintings arrived back in Scotland, William's father Edward Satchwell Fraser (1751-1835) organised the pictures and wrote descriptions on separate cover papers and re-numbered them. This is what we find on the larger of the two cover papers, where he gives the number 19, but mentions in parenthesis the original number 21 from William's cover paper, which accords with what we have here. For a description and dicsussion of the numbering and labelling of the albums see Archer and Falk 1989, p.137.