Add Or 3203

The house of Charles Boddam, Chapra. A bungalow with three flights of steps leading to a verandah with Tuscan columns, two small cupolas, or dovecotes, on the roof. A European couple standing at the door.

Probably by a Chapra artist, c.1810.

Inscribed on back in ink: ‘East view of the house at Chuprah inhabited by Charles Boddam Esqr. from April 1794 to April 1806’. Watermark: ‘J. Whatman 1804.’

515 by 690 mm.

From the collection of James Chicheley Hyde (Add.Or.3188-3274). Presented by the Thomas Coram Foundation for Children, London, 1973.

Note: This drawing is almost identical with Add.Or.2600 and shows that paintings of houses were at times copied for sale to the British. Charles Boddam went to Bengal in the East India Company’s service as a writer in 1780. In May 1793 he was posted to Saran District as Judge of Dewanny Adawlut and Magistrate. He died at Fort William on 13th August 1811. He was a scholarly man and made a translation of the ‘Adhyatma Ramayana’, two copies of which illustrated by Chapra artists are in the Library (Mss Eur C116/1, 2 and C215/1, 2.).