Johnson 63,1-8

J.63,1-8

8 drawings, originally pasted in an album but now mounted separately, depicting South Indian ‘manners and customs’.

By a South Indian artist, probably at Madras, c.1787.

Inscribed with titles and notes in English, and in some cases in German in Gothic script.

Wash and water-colour; various sizes.

Purchased by the East India Company from the widow of Richard Johnson 1807.

Note: Richard Johnson (died 1807) was employed by the East India Company from 1770 to 1799, leaving India in 1790. He served as Resident at the Nizam’s Court, Hyderabad, from 1783 to 1788. During his service he made a large collection of Indian manuscripts and miniatures which were purchased by the East India Company for its Library after his death. There is no record of how Johnson obtained these particular drawings. The inscriptions suggest that they may have been collected by a German-speaking missionary in South India. Danish missionaries from Tranquebar and Tanjore, such as Heyne, Swartz and Gericke, were interested in Indian manners and customs and it is possible that one of them was instrumental in obtaining these drawings for Johnson. In the alternative he may have obtained them from a German-speaking merchant in the Dutch East India Company some of whose factories were in South India and Hyderabad.