FIVE MICA PAINTINGS OF INDIAN COUPLES
Patna or Benares, Northern India, ca. 1840 - 1860

Comprising five rectangular vertical-format panels of opaque pigments on mica, providing a faithful representation of 19th-century Indian society, its traditions, fashion standards, and castes, featuring male and female villagers in their typical, colorful attires, four sheets mounted on thin paper bearing English annotations in pencil like Barber and His Wife, Monshee (secretary, teacher) and His Wife, and Mohyal Caste and His Wife (Mohyal Brahmins are an Indian sub-caste of Saraswat Brahmins from the Punjab region), the mica sheet 19cm x 14cm.