HIGHLIGHT OBJECTS

The Golden Throne
Sheets of gold worked in repousse, chased and engraved, over a wooden core.
Made by Hafez Muhammad Multani.
Lahore, about 1820-30.
Height approximately 93cm.
Museum no. 2518(IS)

The Golden Throne was made for Maharaja Ranjit Singh by a Muslim goldsmith, Hafez Muhammad Multani, between about 1820 and 1830. The craftsman decorated thick sheets of pure gold with a design of flowering plants that cover the wooden core of the throne. Hafez Muhammad must have been a leading goldsmith of the Lahore court as he is mentioned twice in the detailed inventories made of the treasury when the Panjab and Sikh crown property was annexed by the East India Company in 1849. The British Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, was not sure if the throne would be wanted. Writing to London he reported 'It is set apart as an object which the court [of the East India Company] would probably desire to preserve, but as it is bulky, I shall not forward it until I receive orders to do so'. The Company did wish to preserve it and in 1853 the throne travelled to Calcutta (where Dalhousie had a wooden replica made) before it was shipped to the Indian Museum in London. In 1879, Ranjit Singh's Golden Throne moved to the South Kensington Museum, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum.