Two caparisoned elephants in a hilly landscape, from the Louisa Parlby Album, Murshidabad, Company School, circa 1795-1810

Francesca Galloway, London.

Carlton Rochell, New York.

Francesca Galloway, The Louisa Parlby Album Watercolours from Murshidabad 1795–1803, London, 2017, cat. no. 3.

This illustration is from an album assembled in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century in Bengal (probably at Maidapur near Murshidabad) by Louisa, the wife of Colonel James Parlby, who was an engineer in the service of the East India Company. Reflecting the British collecting tastes of the time, the album included studies of local flora and fauna, architectural and topographical views, Hindu and Muslim festivals, a series of Palladian mansions as well as the Nawab’s Palace in Murshidabad.

The ‘B’ on the front elephant may possibly refer to Judge Edward Eyre Burgess who was appointed judge at the Murshidabad adaulat in 1772. There is no scenery like this around Murshdidabad/ Maidapur, but if he later became a circuit judge, then he would have travelled to and from court houses across Bengal, with its Chittagong hills. This would be fitting for an official such as Judge Burgess to travel with a certain amount of pomp and ceremony such as shown in the costume of the elephants.