52.00inch wide
70.00inch high
(132.08 cm wide 177.80 cm high)
Description
Admiral Grant's Map of India
Hand painted on linen, this very large map of India shows Admiral Henry Duncan Grant's involvement in the Indian Mutiny of 1857. It is dated 34 years after the Mutiny and was probably done by Grant as a record of the land action seen by the Naval Brigade in Bengal. The Brigade's force was variously split, regrouped and reinforced during this period and the towns that were relevant to their movements or actions are mostly illustrated. At the start of the Mutiny Grant was a Lieutenant on HMS Pearl and had recently seen action in Peru. The initial Brigade was made up of men from both the Pearl and Shannon who disembarked with guns at Calcutta to be towed up the Hoogly on flats to join the relief force at Lucknow. Half the force was left with the garrison at Allahabad with the others going on to Cawnpore and Lucknow, seeing action on the way. Sotheby, Grant's captain on the Pearl, took 158 of his men with guns by paddle steamer up river from Calcutta to Dinapur and on to Buxur. From there they went to Chupra and onto Sewan and Myrwa. Another detachment from the Pearl had since joined the force and it is probable, going on the map, that they travelled by train from Howrah station in Calcutta to Raneegunj, thence taking Dak Gharries and marching. The railway was in its infancy in India at this time and it would be another 5 years before a train could be taken the full 541 miles from Calcutta to Benares. The Brigade was attached to the Sarun Field Force and saw action at numerous places of which Sohunpore, Phoolpur, Belina, Amorha, Kuptangge, Bustee and Toolseepar are all marked on the map. Perhaps their greatest victory was at Amorha where their force of 1261 men with 4 guns defeated a rebel force of 14,000 with ten guns. They are also known to have been at a number of the other marked towns on the map. Aside from his general involvement in the actions of the Brigade, Naval records show that Grant led a force of 73 seamen and marines to relieve a garrison of Sikhs under attack at Bansee. The Brigade took part in the last general action of the Mutiny at Goolereah Ghat, 5 miles from Toolseepore. The map shows their homeward march in blue dashes to Allahabad where they embarked on the steamer Benares, reaching Calcutta on the 2nd February 1859. Grant painted this map on the 1st of May 1893, 4 years before he died at the age of 62. The Mutiny was probably the greatest action he saw and ironically, as a Naval Officer, it was fought on land. He was promoted to Commander during the Mutiny in 1858, making Captain in 1864, Rear Admiral in 1881, Vice Admiral in 1888 and Admiral of the Fleet in 1892. Between 1885 and 1888 he was Superintendent of H.M. Dockyard Devonport. Aside from its historical interest, mapping the involvement of the Naval Brigade in the Indian Mutiny, the map also has a great naive charm highlighted by the inaccuracies to the cartography. Added to this, the good use of colour and the map's sheer size gives it a decorative quality. Dated 1st May 1893.
Price
gbp 2700.00 (Pound Sterling)
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