HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 1
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 2
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 3
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 4
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 5
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 6
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 7
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 8
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog - photo 9

HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog

Lot 184
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 30 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 870812
Lot 184 | HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photog
Estimate value
£ 30 000 – 50 000
HILLS-JOHNES, Lieutenant General Sir James VC (1833- 1919, compiler) – Henry Ambrose OLDFIELD (1822-1871, artist); RAJMAN SINGH CHITRAKAR (1797-1865, artist); Jean Baptiste Oscar MALLITTE (1829-1905, photographer); Clarence COMYN TAYLOR (1830-1879, photographer), and others.

Album containing important photographs and watercolours relating to India, Nepal, Kashmir and Afghanistan. [c.1850-1880s.]

An important mid 19th-century album compiled by Lieutenant General Sir James Hills-Johnes VC, containing a mixture of photographs of family, friends and fellow-officers, as well as watercolours and sketches of Nepal. The album comprises 160 photographs in total, and opens with 2 leaves of 11 photographs of various officers, with names captioned in ink. This is followed by 2 important images: one of ‘G[overnor]. G[eneral]'s Camp’, and below it a group shot of Col. Yule, Major Jones, Mr. Walters, Captain Stanley, Captain Baring, Captain Roberts V.C., Captain Hills V.C. and Sir E. Campbell Bart. A copy in the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been dated to 1858-1861, but although they do not name a photographer, it seems most likely this is the work of the French photographer Jean Baptiste Oscar Mallitte. Both this album, and the Met (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/287646) contain further similar group shots taken at the same camp attributed to Mallitte.



The album continues with further photographs of fellow officers, as well as a portrait of Lady Canning taken c.1861 by Josiah Rowe (British, c. 1809-1874), and some Indian landscape shots, such as the bridge over Hindon River, Ghaziabad, and stock photographs by Samuel Bourne of Government House, Calcutta, and the racecourse at Simla (signed with Bourne’s negative number 1838).



The middle section of the album contains five photographs of the family of Henry Ambrose Oldfield, doctor at the British Residency in Kathmandu, Nepal (1850-1863). Oldfield enjoyed close relations with the prime minister of Nepal, and there are a number of important photographs by Clarence Comyn Taylor (1830-1879) of: Maharaj Dhiraj Surendra Bikram Sah, King of Nepal (ruled 1846-1881; also a group photograph with Colonel Til Bieksam and Colonel Delhi Ling); Colonel George Ramsey, the British Resident (portrait and group photograph with Nepalese ‘A Durbar’); full-length portrait of Maharajah Jang Bahadur CB, Prime Minister & Commander-in-chief, Nepal (as well as another family portrait of Maharajah Jang Bahadur, his wife and his two daughters; and yet another with his sons); and Raj Guru, the chief Hindu priest of Nepal and a brother of Jang Bahadur. Comyn Taylor arrived in Kathmandu in 1863 as Assistant Resident and was responsible for the first photographs of the country and peoples. Landscape shots include the Residency in Kathmandu and the city of Patun.



There are four extremely attractive watercolours by Oldfield, including ‘A Gateway of Palace, Kathmandhoo,’ the palace at Kathmandu, ‘Interior of principal temple, Pashputty Nepal [sic, Pashupatinath]’ and Swayambhunath Temple. Accompanying these are 8 pencil landscape sketches in the style of Oldfield, but one is captioned ‘(Rajman)’. This is probably a local artist from Patan, Rajman Singh Chitrakar (1797-1865). Trained by the former British Resident Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800/1801-1894), Rajman’s oeuvre consisted of Buddhist monuments and zoological works (the Natural History Museum in South Kensington has 16 of his watercolours of Nepalese birds). Rajman’s reputation is being slowly rediscovered, and it would seem probable that Oldfield finished the watercolours based on Rajman’s sketches. The album also contains a watercolour of a bison, which is distinctly ‘company school’ in execution, but probably too naïve to be attributed to Rajman.



Finally, the album closes with a number of photographs from Kandahar, Afghanistan. These show a detachment of Royal Artillery, headquarters, Royal Hospital and a gate in the city’s walls. These presumably relate to the Second Afghan War (1878-1880). There is a photograph at the beginning of the album captioned ‘Lt Col. Stewart’, and presumably this is the Donald Martin Stewart who commanded a column during the Second Afghan War, advanced through the Bolan Pass to Quetta, and then on to Kandahar in January 1879. In March 1880, Stewart made a difficult march from Kandahar to Kabul. One of the consequences of this was for Stewart to order Major-General Sir Frederick Roberts (seen in group shot photograph alongside Hills-Johnes at the beginning of the album) to lead the Kabul Field Force over the Shutargardan Pass into central Afghanistan, defeating the Afghan Army at Charasiab on 6 October 1879, and occupying Kabul two days later. Hills-Johnes, promoted Major-General in July 1879, was made military governor of Kabul in October 1879.



Oblong folio album containing approximately 88 portrait and group photographs measuring from approx. 185 x 140mm to 135 x 105mm and smaller, 48 larger group, camp and landscape photographs approx. 175 x 235mm, 24 large group and landscape photographs approx. 245 x 300mm, 12 large watercolours and drawings approx. 285 x 370mm, and one smaller drawing approx.115 x 190mm, mounted on 66 leaves (383 x 423mm). Contemporary black straight-grained half roan (rebacked, extremities rubbed and soiled).

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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10.12.2022 – 13.12.2022
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