Hand-drawn studies of Indian boats

Sawyer, Cornelius, British mariner and draughtsman (fl. 1830s). Manuscript notebook.

€ 18,000.00

Finely illustrated manuscript notebook of an 1834 voyage to India with over twenty pages of beautifully drawn Indian boats, carefully sketched from life along the rivers of Bengal. Altogether, 14 large and 4 smaller drawings illustrate indigenous boats and ships of all kinds. Other sketches cover landscapes, and one is signed "Cornelius Sawyer", who remains unidentified.

Sawyer's sketchbook in fact begins as a ship's log, setting out from Portsmouth, England in March of 1834 towards India, and passing the Cape of Good Hope on May 15th. The log, with similar exactitude as the following drawings, mentions the names and destinations of ships encountered along the journey; for example, one is informed of a meeting with the Minerva, which had set out from Liverpool and was bound for Bombay. The log ends rather abruptly prior to arrival on Thursday, June 26th, and two pages of handwritten notes on Russian currencies and measures follow. Alongside this is a transcription from the biography of Reginald Herber (published in London, 1830; the transcript is from volume 1, p. 118), the Lord Bishop of Calcutta (today Kolkata), the capital of Bengal. Between Herber and the notes on Russian currency, one might wonder if the author was planning to do business with Russians in Bengal.

Regardless of his business aims, the true interest of Cornelius Sawyer clearly lay in ships, and his skilled sketches complete the rest of the notebook, of which they are the highlight. These comprise 14 brown ink drawings of Indian boats, some identified as a kutwa panswai; a Calcutta panswai; a budgerow; a jumlook salt boat; a Deccan pulwa; a small meeg boat of the Sundarbans; a nudder panswai for grain. Then pencil drawings: a mix of boats and views from the water drawn in pencil: a Western sail ship; view of Sultangunge (Sultanganj on the Ganges); a view "not far from Mongfui (?) Sunday August 24, 1834"; two boats; "bridge over the Sunna" (Sone River). This is followed by various seemingly unrelated sketches and doodles including several of Heidelberg, one signed. Lastly follow smaller sketches of various Indian boats with their names and studies in pencil of antelope horns. Altogether, a fantastic nautical collection.