An Englishman being carried in a palanquin, attributable to Muhammad Amir of Karraya, Calcutta, circa 1830-1835

Cary Welch's handwritten notes on the mount suggest that perhaps this illustration was originally from the Holroyd Album, an album commissioned by a Calcutta businessman, Thomas Holroyd Esq., of No. 5 Park Street, Chowringhee. In the 1830s he commissioned Muhammad Amir of Karraya, a talented artist working in Calcutta who painted for many British patrons, to produce a series of watercolours of aspects of life in India, his possessions, staff and house in Calcutta. In 1839 Holroyd joined the newly-founded Oriental Club in London, to which he donated his album. It was sold in the early 1960s. For an almost identical illustration, signed by Muhammad Amir of Karraya, from the Holroyd Album see Welch 1978, no.24, p.72. For other illustrations from the album, and further information on Holroyd, see Archer 1972, pls.28-30; Welch 1973, no.73, p.123.