Their Excellencies Lord and Lady Curzon on the State Elephant “Lutchmann Pershad” (from the album ‘The Coronation Durbar Delhi 1903’)

This photograph depicts a richly caparisoned elephant, Lakshman Prasad, with gorgeous trappings and a resplendent howdah, approaching the Durbar grounds. Lord and Lady Curzon are seen mounted on their procession elephant, lent from the stables of the Maharaja of Benares, flanked by the official Durbar guards awaiting their grand entrance.

Bourne and Shepherd, an Indian photo studio established in 1863, was one of the oldest and most successful commercial photographic studios in the world. From portraits to scenery and architecture, their studio was foremost in representing the aesthetic tastes of their patrons, which included British officials as well as Indian princes and professionals. In 1911, they were appointed as the official photographers of the ‘Delhi Durbar’ held to commemorate the coronation in Britain of King George V and Queen Mary, where the former was titled ‘Kaiser-i-Hind’.