A very good example of this rare aquatint depicting the British attack on Laft, which was a possession of the Qawasim at the time of the conflict. The print is from a series of aquatints after drawings by Richard Temple, titled Sixteen Views of Places in the Persian Gulph, Taken in the Years 1809-10 — a work widely regarded as the most desirable nineteenth-century publication on the Gulf, celebrated for its early depictions of the Arabian littoral. It is also prized as the first Western colour plate book to depict any part of the modern-day United Arab Emirates.
Temple served as a private in Her Majesty’s 65th Regiment during the Persian Gulf Campaign of 1809, in which the East India Company (and Royal Navy) attacked the Qawasim at its bases along the Persian and Arabian coasts. The EIC and British establishment justified their actions as an attempt to suppress piracy, but this stance has been strongly challenged by revisionist historians. (See Lorimer’s Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Historical Section, pp.654-656, for an official British perspective on the expedition; and Sultan Muhammad Al Qasimi’s The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Persian Gulf, for a rebuttal of Lorimer’s stance on the Al Qasimi’s role in piracy.)
The present print shows the British attack on Laft, which took place after negotiations with the local representatives of the Qawasim broke down. Though situated on the Persian littoral of the Gulf, Laft was a possession of the Qawasim and posed a significant military challenge due to its well-constructed fort. Strength of numbers resulted in a British victory but not without 27 soldiers killed or wounded.
Provenance: Richard S. John. Purchased from the Parker Gallery, London in November 1968.
References: Abbey, Travel 389, 293; Bobbins I, 115 & 274.
