in watercolour and ink on paper, inscribed upper right with a list of annotations, further inscribed below 'Fort of Copoole', image 30.5 x 46.5cm., framed and glazed

This depiction of the fort is by an amateur hand, most probably a soldier-artist who made it in preparation of an attack. The annotations note where the intended breach of the fort's wall is to take place. The fort was embellished in 17th century when it was within the territories of Ibrahim Adil Shah II of Bijapur. In the later 18th century it came into the possession of the Maratha leader, Shivaji, only to be captured shortly afterwards by Haidar Ali. His son, Tipu Sultan, added to the fortifications until it came under siege in 1790-91, from when this sketch dates, by the forces of Britain's ally, the Nizam of Hyderabad, with support of troops from the East india Company. In the nineteenth century, the fort became associated with rebellion against the British, first in 1819 and then again in 1857 leading to the British breaching the battlements to supress the rebels.