Timur enthroned on a palace terrace Delhi, circa 1900

Timur enthroned on a palace terrace
Delhi, circa 1900
gouache and gold on paper, laid down on a large album page with floral motifs and cartouches illuminated in colours and gold, cloth edging
painting 142 x 80 mm.; album page including edging 427 x 275 mm.
Pasted to the backboard is a cutting from a newspaper or magazine concerning the March meeting of the Delhi Music Club (with no year), at which, 'Lady Crosthwaite, who has been its President for seven years, took leave of us on quitting Delhi (though I prophesy that it will not be the last time she sings in this city). The committee and members presented to her, as a small token of their love and gratitude, a fine Moghul painting'.

It is therefore likely that our painting is the one presented. Lady Crosthwaite is perhaps the wife of Sir Charles Crosthwaite (1835-1915), who was Chief Commissioner of Burma from 1887 to 1890, and then a Member of the Governor-General's Supreme Council from 1890 to 1895; Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest Provinces and Oudh; and a member of the Council of India from 1895 to 1905. Such dates would concur with (and is a useful piece of evidence for) the usual dating given to such Delhi, Mughal-style works.