NINETEEN MICA PAINTINGS OF INDIAN TRADESPEOPLE, CRAFTSMEN, VILLAGERS, AND NOBLEMEN, AND A COMPANY SCHOOL WATERCOLOUR OF A SHAIVA PUNDIT
Tiruchirappalli (Trichinopoly), Tamil Nadu, Southern India, ca. 1830 - 1840

Comprising nineteen panels of opaque pigments on mica, each leaf in vertical format, 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, religious devotees, traders and craftsmen like a cobbler, and a few carriers, and servants like messengers, each mica leaf slightly different in size, some mounted on this paper folios, the largest 11.5cm x 7.5cm; and a realistic watercolour, opaque pigments on paper, with a Shaiva ascetic or pundit wearing a long string of rudraksha beads on his head and chest and the tripundra mark with a large red bindi on his forehead, 16.2cm x 11cm.