Lot 102•
FIRST SIKH WAR Inscriptions on the Seikh Guns Captured by the Army of the Sutledge 1845-46, FIRST EDITION, [?Calcutta, c.1847-9]
26 February 2020, 13:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £10,687.50 inc. premium
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FIRST SIKH WAR
Inscriptions on the Seikh Guns Captured by the Army of the Sutledge 1845-46, FIRST EDITION, 64 hand-coloured lithographed plates (including title signed "C. Gomeze, Script" and "C. Gomeze Lith."), all printed on recto only, interleaved throughout, contemporary half morocco gilt, gilt morocco lettering label ("Inscriptions on the Captured Seikh Guns") on upper cover, spine worn with small tears, 4to (277 x 218mm.), [?Calcutta, c.1847-9]
Footnotes
SCARCE AND BEAUTIFULLY PRESENTED MEMENTO OF THE FIRST ANGLO-SIKH WAR. The title-page gives the name of "C. Gomeze" as the designer and lithographer - surely the "Christopher Gomez, of the H.C. Lithographic Press [Calcutta]" whose marriage is noted in The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India (1835). Authorship has sometimes been attributed to Captain Ralph Smyth of the Bengal Artillery, whose extensive research into the mechanics of the guns was published as Plans of Ordnance Captured by the Army of the Sutledge c.1850. Each page has a highly decorative different all-over design, mostly of a floral pattern, in which is incorporated a Persian inscription (mostly in Nastaliq script with some in Lahnda or Devanagari) taken from one of the Sikh guns captured by the British.
Symbols of Sikh military power, the canons were manufactured between 1801 and 1839 at the instigation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, making the Sikh Khalsa Darbar Army the most modern army the East India Company ever faced in battle. The majority of the 256 guns that were captured during the conflict were melted down, however a few of the most ornate pieces were sent to Britain - some of which are still present in collections held by the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich; the Royal Hospital, Chelsea; and Dover Castle.