Art News

Bonhams to Sell Personal Items Relating to Indian Mutiny

LONDON.- Bonhams are to sell a private family collection of items relating to the Indian Mutiny of 1857/58 during their Summer Athenaeum sale at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk on Thursday 15th July. The Indian Mutiny of 1857/58 stands out amongst the many major historical events of the 19th century and lasted thirteen months while the Indians rebelled against British authority in their country. The sheer brutality of the actions, during and after the mutiny, and the shockwaves it sent through the then mighty British Empire were immense. This interesting collection of items has come by descent from two men who witnessed these tragic days unfolding, Lt. (later Lt. General) Octavius Ludlow Smith of the 48th Bengal Regiment of Native Infantry and his father-in-law Lt. Colonel (later Major General) Sir Vincent Eyre. Prior to these events Eyre had been involved in Afghanistan, where in 1842 he was captured, along with his family, by Afgha