Illustration of a Trophy

This image depicts a gold and rock crystal model tiger head, paws and claws, with banners and a standard of Tipu Sultan’s mounted army as a trophy on a base that is inscribed: ‘This Trophy was taken/At the Storming of Seringapatam/4^th May 1799/Richard Earl of Mornington/Then Governor General of India’. Originally part of a footstool for Tipu’s throne, the tiger head was plundered after the siege and is now in the Royal collection in Britain.