£12,500
Fine Asian & Islamic Works of Art | 640
Auction: 14 May 2021 at 11:00 BST
one burgundy, the other purple and yellow, with tassels-weights at the end of each sash, constructed of gilt-metal and metal thread bound onto a core, the metal thread combined with silk thread
Provenance:
Elveden Hall, Suffolk, Home of Maharajah Duleep Singh (1863-1893).
Private Collection, UK, acquired from the above in the late 1950s.
Note: In the renowned full portrait painting of Maharaja Duleep Singh by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-73) [1], the last Sikh king is featured as a young man in his full Indian regal dress. He is shown wearing a silk sash wound around his waist that closely resembles the two offered here for sale.
Another property of Maharajah Singh was offered in Lyon and Turnbull, 9th December 2009, lot 123
[1] The Royal Collection Trust, accession number RCIN 403843
Born in Lahore (present-day Punjab in Pakistan) in 1838, Maharajah Duleep Singh became the last ruler of the Sikh Empire just after his fifth birthday, with his mother ruling as regent. His reign was short-lived. Following the second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849, the Sikh Empire fell, and he was forced to surrender to the British. Duleep Singh was taken into the care of the British forces, converted to Christianity in 1853, and granted a pension on the condition he be obedient to the British government. The following year, he arrived in England and joined the British royal court.
Arriving in England in 1854, Duleep Singh quickly became a favourite of Queen Victoria. During this same year, she commissioned a portrait of him by the renowned court painter Franz Xavier Winterhalter. Duleep Singh and his wife Bamba became great socialites from their country home at Elveden Hall, frequently entertaining noble and aristocratic guests such as the Prince of Wales. Following financial difficulties in 1881, the family moved from their country estate to Holland Park in London, where Duleep Singh continued to learn about his heritage and the Sikh Empire, and although he was prevented from ever returning to India, in 1886 he eventually was able to be re-baptised into his Sikh faith.