Lucknow, State Elephant with Canopied Howdah, Antique Steel Engraving, 1859

An original antique steel engraving, uncolored, titled "LUCKNOW." A great elephant fills the center of the picture, draped in a fringed and embroidered cloth and carrying a howdah with two domed, fringed canopies and a flat fringed awning on tall poles. Its mahout sits on its neck holding a goad, and an attendant with a spear stands at its trunk. Around it are more spearmen, a figure seated at the right with a round shield, and a man under a parasol on the steps of a building at the left. In the background a second elephant with riders passes along a wall, beyond which rise palm trees and a mosque with bulbous domes and tall minarets. A clouded sky spreads above.

The plate is lettered below the image in Dutch: "LUCKNOW.", which translates as "Lucknow". Beneath the caption, in a small script, is the publisher's imprint "Uitg. Gebrs Kraaÿ, Amsterdam.", short for uitgegeven (published) by the Kraay brothers of Amsterdam. No artist or engraver is legibly named; only a faint, unreadable trace of script shows below the lower right corner of the image.

It was issued in 1859 in A. van Otterloo's Britsch-Indië, beschreven naar de nieuwste bronnen, published in Amsterdam by Gebroeders Kraay as the opening volume of their series Vreemde Landen en Volken (Foreign Lands and Peoples). The title page describes the book as illustrated with twenty-four steel engravings and a map, and each view carries its own Dutch caption and the Kraay imprint.

Lucknow was the capital of the kingdom of Awadh and the scene of the long siege of 1857. The large, finely shaded elephant makes this a striking single image and a natural favorite for a child's room or a study.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.