Methods of hunting, India, Mughal, second half 17th century

Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India (1774-85)

Messrs. Farebrother Clark and Lye, 22 August 1853, lot 879

Sir Thomas Phillipps Bt.

Phillip and Lionel Robinson

Sotheby’s, London, 27 November 1968, lot 406 (unillustrated)

inscriptions

In the upper margin, shekargah-e salatin-e hendustan, 'The hunting place of Indian Sultans'

This illustration is mounted on a gold sprinkled album page from the Warren Hastings album which was assembled in Awadh during the reign of Nawab Asaf al-Dawla (r.1775-97). Warren Hastings, the first British Governor-General of India, collected a large number of paintings and calligraphies during his stay at Asaf al-Dawla's court, which he brought to England in 1785. A painting from the Warren Hastings album with a seal impression of Asaf al-Dawla dated 1190 AH/1776-77 was sold at Roseberys London, 14 June 2022, lot 315, suggesting that Hastings almost certainly acquired directly from the library of the Nawab. Warren Hastings’ library at Daylesford House, Oxfordshire, was sold after his death by Messrs. Farebrother Clark and Lye in 1853. Leaves from this album then entered the collection of the renowned bibliophile Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), which were eventually sold at Sotheby’s on 27 November 1968.

A group of eight leaves from this album were sold in these rooms, 11 October 1982, lots 30 to 37, including one signed by the artist Ram Sahai, a contemporary of Warren Hastings, and accompanied by a four-page poem signed by William Jones (1746-94). More recently, paintings from the Warren Hastings album were sold in these rooms, 30 April 2025, lots 607 and 608, Sotheby's New York, 17 June 1999, lot 14, and Christie's London, 26 April 2005, lots 227 and 228, and 14 October 2003, lot 149.