NAM.1961-10-9-2

Raja Tej Singh (1799-1862), 1845 (c). Miniature portrait in watercolour on ivory, by a Company artist, Lahore, India, 1845 (c). Unframed. From a frame of seventeen Indian miniatures painted on ivory, one of which is missing. Tej Singh was a general in the Sikh Army who supported Rani Chand Kaur when she claimed the regency in 1840. However, his loyalty to the Sikh Army was questionable, since he established links with the British and kept his force away from the Battle of Ferozeshah in 1845. In 1846, at the Battle of Sobraon, Tej Singh is alleged to have weakened a bridge, trapping the Sikh Army and preventing its retreat. He was made Raja of Sialkot in 1847 and Raja of Batala in 1861. Previously catalogued as a portrait of Tez Singh, recatalogued as a portrait of Tej Singh by the experts in the Brothers in Arms Project in 2015. Inscribed in pencil verso, ‘TEZ SINGH’. The original captions says, ‘6. Tez Singh. General of the Sikhs in the 1st Sikh War,’