Overall: 39cm (15.4in) x 28cm (11in)
Provenance: Air Marshal Sir Charles Carr (1891-1971), AOC-in-C India, 1946
Silver gelatin threequarter length portrait of the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal in court dress and wearing the breasts stars of a Kniught Grand Cross of the Order of Star India and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Indian Empire. Autographed signed by the sitter in blue ink and dated 1946. Contained in a glazed Indian silver presentation frame with a bound reeded border and arched top applied with the arms of arms of the nawab: Vert, a tower Or and twelve musk-blossoms per bordure, proper. Crest: On a helmet guardant, lambrequined Vert and Or, three arrows in saltire, charged with a fleur de lys Argent. Supporters: Two fishes (máhsir) proper. Motto: Nasr min Allah (Victory is from God).
Air Vice Marshal Sir Muhammad Hamidullah Khan Bahadur, the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal, succeeded his mother, Begum Kaikhusrau Jahan Begum, who abdicated in his favour in 1926. A delegate to the Round Table Conference in London, he served as Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes from 1944 to 1947. During the Second World War, he was present at the Battle of Keren and the Battle of El Alamein. He was a close to Muhammad Ali Jinnah and on very good terms with the last Viceroy Louis Mountbatten. Despite pressure from Jinnah, he reluctantly agreed to have Bhopal join the Union of India. He was succeeded by his second daughter, Sajida Sultan, Begum of Bhopal.