Admirer of Paul Raj Paintings

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Paul was born in Kodaikanal on 22 September 1914 and died on 2 October 1979. G D Arulraj was born in 1925 and died in June 1972 while visiting India. Arul worked at Laguna Beach in the 60's and 1970's. G D Thyagaraj might have been born in 1922 and I am told that he probably died sometime before 1981. He moved to northern India as a young man. I lived in India as a child and spent a lot of time in Calcutta. My mother purchased several paintings directly from Paul Raj while living in Madras and this got me interested in his works. I then discovered he had two brothers Arul Raj and Thyaga Raj who were both fantastic artists. I could not find much information on the internet so decided to set up my own blog. Subsequently a Facebook tribute site has also been created to the memory of the three brothers. Contact me at: rajbrothers@hotmail.co.uk

Thursday 7 January 2010

Elephants and Coins

I thought I would go off in a different direction today and post a photograph of a fantastic carved wooden elephant I have.  I think it might have come from the Madras region but was not present when my parents purchased it many, many years ago.

It is a large elephant approximately 12 inches in height by 12 inches in length and beautifully carved.  My mother always said it had to stand facing the door of the room, but I cannot recall why?
Also in my profile I mentioned that i have collected Indian silver coins between 1835 and 1945.  I started with silver rupees and of course progressed to half and then quarter rupees eventually collecting the tiny 2 anna coins as well.  Today I am listing an unusual one due to the fact it is stamped PM.  I have been told it was used in an African country, I think it was Mozambique due to a shortage of coinage at the time.


This coin is dated 1884 and was minted in Bombay.  It has a very small mint mark in the base of the lotus flower on the side of the coin with the date at the 12 o'clock position.

Small picture of the mint mark follows but it is hard to see.


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2 comments:

  1. Prabal8 January 2010 at 05:37

    We get these elephants at my place (Orissa). I have also seen this in Bangalore. But I dont think they are so well carved as the one in this picture.

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  2. Gold Finch11 January 2010 at 23:12

    Hello Prabal. Yes it is a very good carving.

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