The modelling of the faces of these Indian figures is excellent, and they accurately represent Indian dress of the mid-1800s. They provided a visual representation of Indian culture and society, by Indians, which was then disseminated abroad by those eager to share their experiences in an exotic land.

This group of figures have an interesting provenance, with a history of use by the original owner's great great niece as table decorations.

These figurines were usually made of sun-dried clay, and some were later painted and finished with fibre hair and cloth garments. They were mostly produced in Krishnanagar near Calcutta, Lucknow and Poona and were popular during the nineteenth century. Made as souvenirs for Europeans, the figures were designed to be literal representations of the various kinds of costume, occupations and religious figures visitors would have encountered in India [see 'Yankee India: American Commercial and Cultural Encounters with India in the age of sail 1784-1860' by Susan S. Bean, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2001.

These figures were brought to Australia from India in 1854 by Hamilton Traill (once manager of Oriental Bank, Melbourne). Subsequently handed down through his family.

Popular throughout the nineteenth century, these figurines were produced for European visitors by potter-sculptors in Krishnanagar (near Calcutta), Lucknow and Poona. They were designed to be instantly recognisable from their costume or the objects they carried. Indian artisans created naturalistic depictions, "in collaboration with their British, American, and Indian patrons to produce portraits and illustrations of Calcutta's social types, a virtual inventory of Indian society from the foreigners' perspective... Figures were specially constructed by Indian artists to depict their society for foreigners; the banians [merchants] with whom they worked, and the plethora of servants required for their business and living arrangements, as well as the public entertainers and strange-looking religious ascetics encountered in their travels in the city and countryside." [see "Yankee India: American Commercial and Cultural Encounters with India in the age of Sail 1784-1860" by Susan S. Bean, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2001, p. 85]

Figure, wearing traditional Indian dress, painted plaster / fabric / wood, maker unknown, India, c 1850

Painted figure, male waring red cloth turban, pattern jacket, wooden beads, woven dhoti with scarf to match and red shoes, on a round wooden base

Made: 1852 - 1854

92/182-3

1852 - 1854

225 mm

65 mm