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The Honourable Emily Eden (1797-1869)

Portraits of the princes and people of India / by Miss Eden ; drawn on stone by L. Dickinson. 1844

RCIN 1070252

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  • A volume of hand-coloured lithographs of sketches made in India by Emily Eden, a correspondent of Queen Victoria and the sister of Lord Auckland.

    Eden and her sister, Fanny, accompanied her brother to India in 1836 after he was appointed Governor-General. The trio travelled across northern India together during which time Eden sketched the people and places they visited. Among her most famous portraits are those of the Sikh rulers of the Punjab. She met Maharajah Ranjit Singh in November 1838 and, as well as sketching his portrait, copied a portrait of Queen Victoria in her coronation robes to present as a gift to the Sikh ruler.

    She published these portraits with text descriptions privately in 1844 using J. Dickinson & Son, print makers to the Duchess of Kent. The cover is gilt stamped ‘Hon. E. Eden's India’ with an image of a snake coiled around an egg.

    The plates include:
    Frontispiece: The son of the Nawab of Banda
    1. Dost Muhammad Khan, the ruler of Afghanistan, with one of his sons and a cousin
    2. Maharajah Sher Singh, then ruler of the Punjab
    3. A Hindu Fakir
    4. A Head Servant of Government House, Calcutta
    5. Akalis, or Sikh warriors
    6. The Rajah of Patiala on his state elephant
    7.  Rajah Hira Singh
    8. Maharajah Hindu Rao, a Mahratha Prince
    9. One of the guards of the Rajah of Patiala with two dwarf servants
    10. A young hill Rajah at Shimla
    11. Dogs and Hawks, gifts from the King of Awadh to the Governor-General, with their attendants
    12. Attendants of Rajah Kharak Singh
    13. Maharajah Ranjit Singh
    14. The favourite horse of Ranjit Singh with its groom; Emeralds and diamonds belonging to Ranjit Singh
    15. Hunting leopards belonging to the King of Awadh with their attendants
    16. Two of Alexander Burnes’ Arab servants
    17. A Fakir attached to the Governor-General’s suite
    18. A Student at the Hindu College in Calcutta; The daughter of one of the servants at Government House
    19. Purtab Singh
    20. A Camel despatch rider
    21. The Rajah of Nahun and his sons; Anand Mussih, a Christian convert
    22. A Group of Tibetan traders sketched at Shimla
    23. A landowner and a Pathan
    24. Lord Auckland receiving the Rajah of Nahun in Durbar.