Exhibition | East of India: Forgotten Trade with Australia

Posted in exhibitions by Editor on June 5, 2013

From the Australian National Maritime Museum:

East of India: Forgotten Trade with Australia
Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, 1 June — 18 August 2013

East of India tracks Australia’s colonial links with India, the power and monopoly of the English East India Company, and its inevitable decline.

It’s a tale of ships and shipwrecks, rice and rum, officers and officials, sailors, soldiers and servants – taking us from the old allure of Asia to modern-day ties between India and Australia.

The exhibition includes over 300 objects including coins, artwork, sculpture, maps, weaponry, ceramics, textiles and clothing from more than 15 local and international lending institutions will feature in the exhibition. Rarely seen artefacts include the bejewelled sword that belonged to the Indian leader Tipu Sultan, killed by East India Company forces at the battle of Seringapatam in 1799, and Indian cargo from the ship Sydney Cove wrecked en route to Australia in 1797.

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From the posting, “Bombay and Calcutta in Sydney” at The British Library’s Asian and African Studies Blog (22 May 2013) . . .

Fort William, Calcutta, c.1731 by George Lambert (1710-1765), and Samuel Scott (1701/2-1772) (BL Reference: F45)

George Lambert and Samuel Scott, Fort William, Calcutta, ca.1731 (London: British Library, Reference: F45)

In 1732 the East India Company commissioned six seascapes of their main trading posts, which were displayed in the Director’s Courtroom of East India House in London. The resulting six paintings showed the East India Company’s trading posts at Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Tellicherry, the Cape of Good Hope and St Helena. They conjured up the spread of imperial power inside a single room in the City of London. All six of the paintings were by George Lambert (1710-1765), and Samuel Scott (1701/2-1772). . .

281 years after they were commissioned, Lambert and Scott’s seascapes of Bombay and Calcutta have been sent to Australia’s National Maritime Museum in Sydney, where they are being exhibited in East of India: Forgotten Trade with Australia. Their inclusion in this international exhibition is incredibly significant. They were painted to symbolise the world beyond London, and centuries later, they have been sent from London to another part of the world. . .

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