A Colour Havildar of the 45th (Rattray's) Sikhs by Alfred Crowdy Lovett (British, 1862-1919), ci...

A Colour Havildar of the 45th (Rattray's) Sikhs by Alfred Crowdy Lovett (British, 1862-1919), circa 1911 watercolour on paper laid down on card, signed lower right, probably contemporary frame with identifying plaque 365 x 240 mm.; frame 480 x 360 mm. Footnotes: Lovett served as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment (also known as the 61st Regiment of Foot) and was posted with them to India in 1883 where they were initially based in Karachi, then moving to Poona, Ahmednagar, Bombay and Nasirabad. By the end of 1915 he had been promoted to Colonel and according to the records at the Gloucestershire Regiment Museum 'he was an artist, chiefly of military subjects'. During his time in India he executed illustrations for The Armies of India by Major G. F. MacMunn, which was first published in 1911. There are prints by Lovett in the collection of the British Museum, London. Named after its founder, Captain Thomas Rattray, the regiment started out in 1856 as a mixed infantry and cavalry unit, of both Sikhs and others, raised in the Punjab and Northwest Frontier. In 1864 its cavalry arm was disbanded and it became part of the Bengal Native Infantry. It served in Malakand and Waziristan in the late 19th Century and in Mesopotamia in the First World War. In 1922 it was renamed as the 3rd Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment. The same figure, in a slightly different pose, appears in a painting dated 1911, sold at Dreweatts, UK, in 2013. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing