Name: The Estate of Major General Claude Martin at Lucknow
SKU: 1-5275-6085-6
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The Estate of Major General Claude Martin at Lucknow

An Indian Inventory

Edited By: Rosie Llewellyn-Jones

From £32.99

Explore the 18th-century Indian household of Claude Martin, a common soldier who became a magnate in Lucknow. This book inventories his possessions—from paintings and weapons to hot air balloons—revealing a man fascinated by Enlightenment science and European luxury.

This volume offers a unique glimpse into a European household in 18th century India. Claude Martin was an entrepreneurial Frenchman who settled in Lucknow, capital…

This volume offers a unique glimpse into a European household in 18th century India. Claude Martin was an entrepreneurial Frenchman who settled in Lucknow, capital of the rich Muslim state of Awadh (Oudh). The book presents the inventory of his houses here for the first time, together with the catalogue of books from his library. It gathers together six experts to examine Martin’s numerous possessions, and discuss his paintings, silverware, jewellery, textiles, weapons, carriages, boats and hot air balloons. His collection of scientific items imported from the best European instrument makers reveals his practical experiments with electricity and astronomy, while his buildings exploited hydraulic engineering to keep them cool.

This book will appeal to readers fascinated by the introduction of Enlightenment ideas into post-Mughal India and the rise of a ‘common soldier’ to the highest ranks of the East India Company. Childless himself, Martin left money to found La Martinière schools in India and France.

Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones is an independent scholar of colonial India, and graduated in Urdu and Hindi from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, where she completed her PhD in 1980. She has authored and edited over a dozen major books, including The Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah (2014) and The Uprising of 1857 (2017). A lecturer on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Asian Arts course, she has also lectured in the USA, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and France. In 2015, she was awarded an MBE for services to British Indian history and for her work for the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA), where she has edited its journal Chowkidar since 1977.