This is a group of six paintings on small sheets of mica from a large series likely made in Trichinopoly, near Tanjore in South India during the mid Nineteenth Century. The series depicts the various castes, trades, occupa⛎tions and costumes of the native peoples of South India - and intended for export or for⛎ members of the British Raj who

acquired them at Tanjore o🌄r at similar British headquarters at Patna and♏ Murshidabad and other locations.

Anna Dallapiccola in South Indian Paintings A Catalogue of the British Museum Collection, London, 2010, cat. nos. 11, 16, 19, 20 and 21 mentions that there is no evi💧dence of mica paintings in Trichinopoly during the first half of the 19th Century so the present examples were likely produced during the third quarter of the 19th Century. Other examples of paintings on mica are in the Victoria and Albert Museum and dispersed in public and private collections worldwide.

A Company School🐼 album of༒ mica miniatures was sold in our London rooms, 31st May 2011, lot 133, from the Stuart Carey-Welch collection.