Antoine Polier
| Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri Polier | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1741 Lausanne |
| Died | 7 February 1795 France |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Spouse | three |
| Children | three |
Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri de Polier (1741–1795) was a Swiss adventurer, art collector, military engineer and soldier who made his fortune in India in the eighteenth century.
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[edit] Early life
Antoine-Louis was born in Lausanne[1] from a French Huguenot family, with a French mother tongue, he later learned Hindustani and Persian.
Antoine Polier was an engineer from Lausanne who fought with Robert Clive and became a rich trader. He devoted his free moments to collecting manuscripts in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic.[1]
In India, he had two Indian wives, Jugnu and Zinat[3], one senior and one junior and three children. He acquired a large art collection and became rich working for the Indian royalty. In 1788 he left his Indian wives with Claude Martin [3] and settled in France with an unfortunate timing as he arrived in time for the French revolution. Having purchased a chateau and taking a French wife he got two children, Charles de Polier and Adolphe de Polier. He was assassinated in Avignon on February 9, 1795 in the terror that followed the French revolution.[4]
[edit] Legacy
His collection of miniatures are in Berlin.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Maya Jasanoff, 'Edge of Empire: Conquest and Collecting on the Eastern Frontiers of the British Empire, 1750-1850' Fourth Estate
- ^ Colonel Mordaunt's Cock Match circa 1784-6, Terry Riggs, October 1997, Tate.org.uk, accessed April 2010
- ^ a b Polier A Man of the Enlightenment in 18th Century India: The Letters of Claude Martin, 1766-1800. http://books.google.com/books?id=_IdAmZ5s7UcC&dq=%22claude+martin%22+india&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=NEfr9x4_nt&sig=fkUhk8kpdiVl4cD1hHiVQx8_26I#PPA285,M1 Polier. Retrieved 2007-05-17.
- ^ William Dalrymple 'Antoines Junior Bibi' Sept 27 2002 Timesonline accessed July 2007
[edit] Further reading
- A European Experience of the Mughal Orient: The I’jaz-i Arsalani (Persian Letters, 1773–1779) of Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier - Translated with an introduction by Muzaffar Alam and Seema Alavi. Pub.Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-564980-X
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