A Company School album of mica paintings, South India, Trichinopoly, circa 1850

Sotheby's, London, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part Two, Arts of India, 31 May 2011, lot 133

The illustrations in the album include full page depictions of local places of interest, processional scenes and festivals, while the half page depictions are of castes, trades and occupations. Almost all the subjects are identified by captions written in English. These were popular themes of Company School painting in India in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Similar illustrations were produced in large sets and bound in albums for European patrons.

Anna Dallapiccola notes that there is no evidence of mica paintings in Trichinopoly in the first half of the 19th century. At this time, artists from the nearby city of Tanjore migrated to Trichinopoly and began producing reverse paintings on glass before working with mica. In South India mica was mined at Cuddapah and brought to Trichinopoly. Although mica had long been used by Indian artists, mica paintings were considered a novelty by the British who also acquired them from Patna and Murshidabad in the north. This would have encouraged the local artists to paint on mica (Dallapiccola 2010, p.164). The predominant colours in South Indian mica paintings are arsenic green, lemon yellow and orangish-brown. The artists working at centres in the north favoured blue, pink and red (Archer 1992, p.194).

For mica paintings produced in Trichinopoly in the mid-19th century depicting Hindu deities, castes and trades, plants and birds, now in the British Museum in London, see Dallapiccola 2010, cat. nos.11, 16, 19, 20 and 21. For other examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Archer 1992, nos.215-242, pp.207-215. No.215, titled ‘Trichinopoly Exports’, comprising four volumes depicting Hindu deities and festival processions, was included in the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London to exhibit the skill of Trichinopoly artists in paintings on mica.