Robert Hyde Colebrooke

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Hyde Colebrooke (1762-1808) View in the interior part of Port Cornwallis, Andaman Islands signed and dated 'R H Colebrooke del t /1790' (lower right) pencil, pen and grey ink and watercolour 13½ x 18 in. (34.3 x 45.7 cm.) A military surveyor and draughtsman, Colebrooke accompanied Alexander Kyd, Surveyor-General, to survey the Andaman and Nicobar Islands between November 1789 - April 1790. A similar view, also dated 1790, is in the collection of the India Office Library, M. Archer, British Drawings in the India Office Library, 1969, vol. I. p. 143.

footnote: the sixteenth century fort at vellore is situated on the palar river, it was also the site of a bloody mutiny on the night of 10th july 1806. the indian regiments objected to the enforced removal of caste-marks, ornaments and beards and also believed (falsely) that the british were mixing pig's blood into their salt. they ran amok and massacred the 69th regiment's sick as they lay in the hospital. the british retaliation was just as brutal with 100 sepoys being dragged against a wall and blasted with cannister shot until all were dead. watercolour

Robert Hyde Colebrooke (1762-1808) Caliam on the Malabar coast, with Colonel Goddard's boat inscribed as titled on a strip of paper attached to the backing board watercolour on paper 15 x 24¼in. (38 x 61.5cm.)

COLEBROOK (ROBERT) East View ofSeringapatam, hand-coloured aquatint by J.W. Edy afterLieutenant Colebrooke, image 415 x 560mm., M. Thomson, 1 March,1793

After Lieutenant Robert Hyde Colebrooke South-west view of Ootra-Durgum; The Lake of Mooty Tallaow near Seringapatam; East view of Bangalore; and Prospect of the country near Mooty Tallaow, by J.W. Edy (Abbey Travel 419, nos. 2,5,6,8 from Twelve views in Mysore) hand-coloured aquatints, published by Mr Thomson, London, 1794, wove paper P. 16½ x 22in. (42 x 56cm.) (4) Lot Notes Colebrooke (1762-1808) had a distinguished career with the Bengal Infantry from 1778 until his death at Bhagalpur. Whilst surveying the routes taken during the marches of the army under Lord Cornwallis in 1791-2 he made drawings of Seringapatam, Bangalore and the Mysore hill-forts.