TWO SOUTH INDIAN COMPANY SCHOOL PAINTINGS OF PAIRS OF LOCAL VILLAGERS AND TRADESPEOPLE
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION
Tanjore (Thanjavur), Tamil Nadu, South India, ca. 1780 - 1800

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, comprising two vertical-format compositions once probably part of a South Indian Company School album collecting images of local villagers and their attires, one album page featuring a Brahmin couple showing the man chewing paan (betel leaf) and the female counterpart looking at him, both wearing traditional attires and accessories from the South Indian regions, an inscription in black ink reading Bramany Caste to the left-hand side, set within black rules and bright red borders, 30.8cm x 21.4cm; and another larger album page with a locksmith and his consort, the man wearing a typical turban from the Mysore area, set within black rules and white borders, the reverse with a bilingual inscription in sepia ink in Tamil and English, the latter reading Gollah Pon, 38.5cm x 28.5cm.