Portrait of Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, Nawab of Arcot and the Carnatic

By descent to Sir Peter Fleming Frederick Leicester, 8th Bart. (1863–1945), Tabley House, Cheshire, by 1945 [1];

Purchased from his posthumous sale, Miniatures, Objects of Vertu, Coins, and Medals, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, May 24, 1948, lot 45, as Portrait of Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah, Nawab of the Carnatic by Hans Edmund Backer (German, 1901–1965), London, 1948 [2];

Carol Hubert Francis Samuelson, Esq. (1899–1984), Greenacre, Exeter, Devon, by 1960 [3];

Purchased from his sale, A Fine Collection of English and Continental Miniatures of the 17th, 18th, and Early 19th Centuries, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, February 9, 1960, lot 168, as Muhammad Ali Khan, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of John W. (1905–2000) and Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1960–1971 [4];

Their gift to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1971.

Notes

[1] At the 1948 sale, Sir Peter Leicester sold lots 40–45. Most of these lots had some ties to India, including two other miniatures by Smart depicting an “Indian Potentate” (lot 43) and a “Young Indian” (lot 44), a miniature by C. C. Rosenberg of a Bengal Army major (lot 40), and a miniature of a gentleman painted by Diana Hill in India in 1787 (lot 42). According to the Fitzwilliam Museum, which purchased lot 44, now titled An Indian Prince, that miniature—and presumably the Nelson-Atkins portrait as well—was inherited by descent in the Leicester family, perhaps through Sir Peter Leicester’s great-uncle, John Leicester (1762–1827), a noted patron and supporter of British artists. “An Indian Prince: PD.16-1948,” The Fitzwilliam Museum, https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/image/media-218900. It is also possible that the Indian miniatures descended in the family through Leicester’s grandfather Sir Charles Leicester (1766–1815)’s first wife, Lady Mary Egerton (1768–1792), whose sister-in-law Rebecca Du Pré (1780–1870, later Dame Rebecca Grey Egerton) was the daughter of Josias du Pré (1720–1780), a governor of Madras.

[2] The lot is described as “Portrait of Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah, Nawab of the Carnatic, three-quarter face to the left, with white beard, white dress with gold stars, gold jacket and gold-banded white turban, by John Smart—signed with initials and dated 1788 I—in oval gold frame.” H. E. Backer seems to be the name Backer used professionally, but his full name is Hans Edmund Backer, and he was a London and Rome-based art dealer. Backer sometimes bid for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. His name comes up in Starr correspondence (See letter of October 11, 1955, University of Missouri-Kansas City archives, Box 22, Folder 9).

[3] Identified in his 1960 sale as C. H. Samuelson, Samuelson’s collection of portrait miniatures was sold at auction the year after the death of his first wife Doris (née Templer, 1898–1959). He married Marjorie Hilda Donisthorpe (b. 1912) in 1961. In 1972, Samuelson donated Doris’s large collection of historic lace and fans to the Royal Albert Museum and Memorial, Exeter, England. Due to the timing of the 1960 Christie’s sale, it is possible that Doris Samuelson was actually the primary collector of portrait miniatures, but this is unsubstantiated as yet. “Samuelson Donation,” By Royal Appointment: Devon Lace Timeline, 2020, https://rammcollections.org.uk/collections-stories/by-royal-appointment-devons-lacemakers/.

[4] The lot is illustrated and described as “Muhammad Ali Khan, by John Smart, signed with initials and dated 1788 I, three quarter face to the right, gaze directed at the artist, wearing gold coat with pearl border—oval, 2 in. high—in engraved gold frame.” Archival research indicates that the Starrs purchased many miniatures from Leggatt Brothers, either directly or with Leggatt acting as their purchasing agent. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.