PATIALA, Punjab. An unused menu card gold embossed with the arms of the state.

An unused menu card printed on off white card 7 x 4½ ins with the arms of Patiala embossed in gilt at the head. Fine condition. A scarce ephemeral survival from the days of lavish princely hospitality. The use of English style armorials is something that the Princes began to adopt around the time of the great Imperial Assemblage at Delhi in 1877, although the heraldry system planned for the sub continent was never fully evolved. Patiala was the senior Sikh Phulkian state in the Punjab whose Maharaja was a Sidhu Jat with a 17 gun salute in 1900. jun29/5

Provenance: In the 1990s we were able to buy a small number of unused menu cards from the last stationer on the Mall in Simla who was selling off stock from the last days of the British Raj.