Overall: 60cm (23.5in) x 47cm (18.5in)
Hand coloured photoceramic. Quarter length portrait of Maharaja Takhat Singh of Jodphur. Signed lower left ‘Johnston & Hoffmann / Calcutta’.
Johnston & Hoffmann (fl.1882-1956) of 22 Chowringhee Road, Calcutta were pioneer photographers in British India. The firm produced portraits of British officials and Indian princely families, and were noted for their hand colouring by independent artists.
Takht Singh, Maharaja of Jodphur, GCSI (1819-1873) was born in Ahmednagar (Himmatnagar), the second son of Maharaja Karan Singh and grandson of Maharaja Sangram Singh, the Maharaja of Ahmednagar from 1798 to 1835. He had little prospect of ascending the throne, yet after the death of his elder brother, Maharaja Prithvi Singh in 1839, he became the regent over the whole state and served as such until the birth of his brother's son, Yuvraj Balwant Singh, who was proclaimed ruler at his birth. Takht Singh then became the new ruler's regent and served as such until the untimely death of his nephew on 23 September 1841, when he became the Maharaja of Ahmednagar. However, two years into his reign in 1843, Maharaja Man Singh of Jodphur died. Takht Singh was persuaded by his widows to take the succession as he was a member of the Rathore Dynasty through his grandfather, Maharaja Sangram Singh, the Maharaja of Idar, who himself was the son of Maharaja Anand Singh, the first ruler of Idar and a younger son of Maharaja Ajit Singh, Maharaja of Jodhpur, however, he had to cede Ahmednagar back to the state of Idar in order to be recognized in Jodhpur by the British authorities. He married 30 wives. He died in the city of Jodhpur on 13 February 1873 and was cremated at Mandore. He was succeeded by his eldest son Maharaja Jaswant Singh II on the Marwar throne, while his third son, Pratap Singh would go on to become the Maharaja of Idar.