WD4163

Album of drawings (ff.1-46) made in 1833 while Phillips was a supernumerary Second-Lieutenant at Dum Dum. Mostly views, some covering a trip through the Sunderbans to Dacca, in pencil or water-colour, a few removed, leaving inscriptions. Most of the temples he drew on the trip are no longer extant.

Album 27.5 by 18.5 cm.

Purchased 1987.

Inside cover. Adjutant birds in a cemetery.

Pencil with water-colour.

f.1 Boats.

Pencil.

f.2 River scenes.

Pencil.

f.3 ‘Golden Plover. March 21st’.

Water-colour.

f.4 ‘On the route to Dacca. 1833’.

Water-colour.

f.5 River boat in a squall, also head study.

Pencil.

f.6 ‘Niya Bangna Bazur - Burmese Boat - 22 March’.

Pencil.

f.7 ‘In the Sunderbunds. After sunset’.

Water-colour.

f.8 ‘Muth at Burrisal. March 23-33. Gunges’.

Pencil.

f.9 Three studies of river craft; ‘Lal Dinghee. Baivarchi Dinghee or Cork boat. Chotuh Dinghee’.

Pencil.

f.10 Muslim tomb. ‘Mosque in Dr Lamb’s Garden Dacca March 31 1833, J.S.P’.

Pencil.

f.11 ‘A Muth near Dacca. April 2, 33’.

Pencil.

f.12 ‘Dacca. Sumpoor Bridge 1st April’.

Pencil.

f.13 Fish. ‘Genus Tetradon. Inflated. Uninflated’. Also ‘River Turtle. Uneateable save for pigs or natives. April 10th. On the Luckea 1833’.

Pencil.

f.14 Elephants tethered to trees on a river bank. ‘Patelgunge April 12 1833’.

Pencil.

Inscribed on reverse: ‘We stayed here two days having our boats luggowed (fastened) beneath the bank and our horses and Elephants standing under the Peepul Trees. This sketch was taken after a morning’s hunt and the large Elephant was the fellow I had for sporting on. On the opposite bank is a village with all its gardens, boats etc.’

f.15 Boat beached on a river bank. ‘On the Luckea. 10 miles from Dacca’.

Pencil.

f.16 Temple and thatched hut.

Water-colour.

Inscribed on reverse: ‘Establishment of Hindoo Fakirs on the course at Dacca, April 29th, 33. J.S.P. Cold evening after rain. These fellows worship their idols at least 3 times a day with an huge sounding of tomtoms and shrieking of conches. They offer various flowers & fruits with significant gestures & light various small lamps every night on small tombs within their compound. (These tombs are in honour of different saints etc)’, with further notes.

f.17 ‘Hotel for Dr Lambs. Dacca’.

Unfinished pencil.

f.18 ‘Hindoo temple at Rajnagur 25 miles S.W. of Dacca. April 30, 33’.

Pencil.

Inscribed on reverse: ‘This building has not what may be called a room contained within its bulk, it is nothing but a number of dark damp passages and cells filled with bats, old vile images and occasional filthy fakirs’.

f.19 Inscribed on reverse: ‘J.S.P. Hindoo building at Rajnagur. May 3rd 33. This is a more correct sketch than I sent before, at least it is as correct as I could afford to make it at midday in the hot weather’.

Pencil.

f.20 Landscape with goats. ‘Copied from Chinnery, 33’.

Water-colour laid down.

ff.21,22 Missing. ‘From Chinnery’.

f.23 ‘Bamboo. Corner of a plantain garden. Palm and two Toddy trees. Mango tree’.

Pencil and wash.

f.24 ‘Tank and Mangoe Trees near Dum Dum’.

Pencil.

ff.25,26 Missing. ‘From Chinnery’.

f.27 Goats. ‘Waterpots’. Below, ‘Tank and Temple of an Hindoo Fukir Estd. East of Dum Dum’.

Pencil and water-colour.

f.28 ‘An approaching N. Wester on the Hoogly, Ishapur’.

Water-colour.

Water-colour missing below.

f.30 ‘A Remarkable Water Sport. Seen by me. Sept 1. Dum Dum, 1833’.

Pencil.

Below, village scene, inscribed on reverse: ‘These huts are built with layers of clay. The lamp pendent from a bamboo is called Kartik Dyas and is suspended in the month Kartik (Part of October and Nov.) in honour of the goddess Kalee who is a most frightful black and sanguinary monster’.

Pencil and wash.

f.31 ‘A window scene. Town Hall Calcutta’.

Water-colour.

f.32 ‘Major Powneys dining room at Ishapore on the Hoogley 3 miles above Barrackpore. Yonder big trees mark the ferry for all dâk travellers’.

Pencil and water-colour.

Note: Richard Pownney (1786-1864) Bengal Artillery, Gunpowder Agent at Ichapur September 1832 to July 1835.

f.35 ‘17 Oct. Titaghur 1833. A Baboo’s house with a small ruined temple to Muhadeve’.

Pencil.

f.36 ‘Common country boat near Barrackpore’.

Pencil.

Below, a lady sketching on horseback.

Pencil.

f.37 ‘Sketch of a Musselman tomb with a lamp burning in memory of the deceased’.

Water-colour.

Below, a cannon, ‘Ft. William, a detail’.

Water-colour.

f.38 ‘Part of tank in my compound’.

Pencil and wash.

Below, ‘A military view from the Main Guard Dum Dum, June 1833’.

Pencil.

f.39 A mosque with a minar.

Pencil and wash.

f.40 ‘Musselman Burial Ground. Dum Dum Dec. 10 1833’.

Pencil.

f.41 Twigs with hornets’ and birds’ nests, and a beaded ornament. Also cross section of a bird’s nest. ‘Ornament or charm from the tomb of the Beji Bore Dacca. Formation of a kind of Hornets nest from a piece of Sola growing in water. Pendent birds nest of the sparrow [tu...illeg.]. Egg pure white, size of a swallows. 1834. ½ natural size’.

Pencil and water-colour.

Further notes on reverse.

f.42 A ‘tulsi’ altar, with notes.

Unfinished pencil.

ff.43-46 Miscellaneous pencil drawings, mainly studies of trees.

f.61 Vultures. ‘A post mortem examination wherein the doctors have perfectly agreed how to treat the subject’.

Pencil.

Inside back cover. Miscellaneous studies mainly heads. Pencil and wash. Also stem of bananas, ‘To Joseph Scott Phillips with his Aunt’s love’ and notes on the plantain. Water-colour.