NHD10-36

Wellesley Collection

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NHD10-36

Two thousand six hundred and sixty folios of watercolour drawings, depicting plants, birds, quadrupeds, insects and fishes from India and the East Indies collected by Richard Colley Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley (1760-1842), Governor-General of Bengal 1798-1805, and now bound in 27 volumes measuring approx. 18 by 13 inches. See Archer's Natural History Drawings in the India Office Library, pp.6-8.

There are 1617 folios (15 vols.) of plant drawings, 558 folios (6 vols.) of birds, 163 folios (2 vols.) of quadrupeds, 250 folios (2 vls.) of insects and 72 folios (1vol.) of fishes. A few drawings are unfinished and are in outline only. One volume (NHD23) contains an index to the plant drawings.

This collection was purchased by the India Office Library in 1866 for £50 from a certain J. Fletcher. Fletcher's exact identity is unknown. The late A.H. Alston of the British Museum (Natural History) has suggested that it is possible that he was J.F. Fletcher of Ashe, near Wrotham, Kent, father of James Fletcher (1852-1908), the Canadian entomologist and botanist.

The drawings and index to the plants are all made on paper with watermarks varying from 1794 to 1802. At the same time various inscriptions link the collection closely to the Governor-General. Some (e.g. NHD32, f.7) appear to be by Wellesley himself and various specimens are recorded as being presented to him (NHD32, f.7) or as being in his possession (NHD32, f.108). It is difficult to identify handwriting as certain inscriptions were made in pencil and later inked in by a different hand. There are many references to people of the time, such as Dr. John Fleming (NHD32, f.80). Two bird paintings (NHD29. ff.21 and 27) bear Lord Valentia's seal, and were probably given by him to Wellesley in 1802 during his visit to Calcutta. A number of plant drawings are copies of some belonging to Captain Hardwicke (1755-1835), a well-known amateur naturalist of the period.

There are also close links between this collection and that of Dr. Buchanan, who was Wellesley's surgeon from 1803-1805. Many drawings of animals and birds are identical with those made under Buchanan's supervision at the Barrackpore Menagerie. The drawings of fishes are so similar to those in the surgeon's collection that they may well have been made by the same painter. The two volumes of plant drawings from Mysore and Nepal are copies of those made for Buchanan during his expeditions of 1800-1801 and 1802. It seems very probable that while attached to Wellesley's staff he assisted in building up the Governor-General's collection by obtaining duplicates for him, and some of the notes on the animal drawings may well be by Buchanan himself. One or two drawings bearing dates prior to Wellesley's arrival in India (e.g. NHD32, f.43) were perhaps from the same source. It is known that Buchanan assisted Sir John Anstruther to form his collection of drawings.

Similar links exist with Roxburgh. A number of plant drawings are copies of the Roxburgh ‘Icones’ and were made at the Calcutta Garden by Roxburgh's team of painters. Many notes refer to the Garden (e.g. NHD10, f.48) and it is probable that some member of the staff named many drawings and compiled the index according to the Linnaean system.

Although a number of specimens depicted in these drawings were acquired from the East Indies, the majority of the inscriptions refer to Calcutta and Bengal and show an intimate connection with that part of India. The vernacular names are in Bengali and Hindi, and the Sanskrit form is sometimes given. The scripts used are Bengali, Nagari and Persian.

A few drawings appear to be by Chinese painters in Malaya (e.g. drawings of birds from Malacca, NHD28, and plants from Penang, NHD17). These were probably painted in Malaya and sent to Wellesley for his collection. The remainder, however, are almost certainly by Calcutta painters. Some of the finest drawings were probably executed by the Company's team of artists employed at the Botanic Garden and the Barrackpore Menagerie. Others were done by painters, such as Mirza Sangi Beg and Manu Lal, who worked privately for the Marquis. It is impossible to attribute the drawings to particular artists, except in the few cases where there is an inscription, but it is easy to distinguish idioms and different degrees of skill. Some drawings are in pale water-colour, others are lightly finished with meticulous over-painting and burnishing. Some of the birds stand on sharp-edged slabs of rock and soil; others are on a grassy strip running from margin to margin; others are contained within a frame and landscape.

The drawings were rebound after their acquisition by the Library and a uniform title-page inscribed on one of the blank sheets at the beginning of each volume: 'Originally prepared by Order of the Marquis Wellesley when Governor-General of India. See Council Minute dated 16th August, 1866'. Thirteen miscellaneous drawings and 37 drawings of insects appear to have been omitted and were later pasted into the natural history scrapbooks NHD1 and 8. The edges of the folios were trimmed and some of the page numbers and inscriptions cut off. Various loose flower drawings were incorporated and the page numbers consequently interrupted so that they no longer correspond exactly with the original index. At various times notes have been inscribed on the drawings correcting names, or giving references to publications (e.g. ‘Plants of the Coast of Coromandel’) where the Roxburgh originals have been reproduced or where references to the plants are made. In this way some confusion in the inscriptions has occurred and it is no longer possible to be entirely sure which are original and which later additions.

In the catalogue, a selection of inscriptions has been incorporated, which throw light on the sources of the collection or on Wellesley's interests.

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NHD10-25

15 volumes of drawings of plants and one index volume from the Wellesley Collection.