A group of eight flora and fauna folios from the Louisa Parlby Album, India, Murshidabad, Company School, late 18th/early 19th century

This group of flora and fauna folios 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. Two further groups of flora and fauna studies from the album were sold in these rooms, 24 October 2018, lots 106 and 107. For more paintings from the same album see lots 50 and 51.