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The Durbar at Poona, 6 August 1790, when the ratified treaty between the Marathas, the Nizam of Hyderabad, and the British was handed to the Peshwa, Sawai Madhavrao (7th Peshwa, 1774-95) by Sir Charles Malet, British Resident at Poona.

Dated 21 February 1883.

Inscribed in panel at bottom of picture in Marathi with a translation in English: ‘Presentation of the ratified Treaty of 1st June 1790 between the English East India Company, the Peishwa and the Nizam against Tippoo. Sir Charles Warre Malet Bart. the British Resident to his Highness Sawaee Madhaorao Narayan Peishwa in full Durbar held in the Gunputtee Rungmahal of the now ruined Shunwar Palace at Poona. Attended by Nana Phadnavi Phudkuy and all the prominent Justerial Characters of the period, on the 6th August 1790. Dr by Supukur Anundrao Damodur. Itour Pet Bohoreeallee. No.345. 21st Feb 1883 Poona.’

Oil painting on glass; 25 by 31 ins.

Presented by the widow of Major General W.A. Watson, 6 March 1945.

Note: This glass-painting is a copy of an engraving by Charles Turner after an oil painting by Thomas Daniell, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1805: ‘Sir C.W. Malet, Bart., the British resident at the Court of Poonah in the year 1790, concluding a treaty in the durbar with Souac Madarow, the peshwa or prince of the Mahratta empire.’ This painting, formerly in the possession of the Malet family at Chargot, Washford, Somerset, was worked up by Daniell from sketches made by James Wales, an artist who worked in Bombay and Western India from 1790 to 1795. The Daniells had met Wales while they were in Bombay in 1793. Wales died at Thana in the island of Salsette in November 1795 and his drawings passed into the possession of Sir Charles Malet who in 1799 married Wales’ daughter, Susan. Malet gave a number of Wales’ drawings to Thomas Daniell, who used some for his painting of the Durbar at Poona, others for the twenty-four aquatints in Part Six of ‘Oriental Scenery,’ entitled’ Hindoo Excavations in the Mountain of Ellora, near Aurungabad, in the Deccan, in Twenty-four views. Engraved from the Drawings of James Wales by and under the Direction of Thomas Daniell’ (1803), and for an unpublished set of nine aquatints depicting cave temples.

The Shanwar Palace at Poona was the chief residence of the later Peshwas. It was destroyed by fire in 1827. The Ganpati Rangmahal, the room in which the durbar was held, is described by E. Moor, ‘The Hindu Pantheon’ (London, 1810), 174.