Casts of Trans-Himalayan Tribes

The Schlagintweit brothers were eminent 19th century scientists and explorers employed by the East India Company to execute several scientific surveys. Between the years 1854-57 they were engaged to make ethnographic copper casts of tribes inhabiting the Himalayan region.

It was a German practice to take moulds of well-known personalities at their death as commemorative tokens. These casts of ethnic types were made in the same technique, which involved a gypsum mould of the face that was then cast in bronze or copper. However, these casts were taken of living tribal populations and mounted on wooden panels. Many such casts were used to demonstrate and describe racial features.

In the year 1858-59, Hermann and Robert Schlagintweit offered to send to the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (then known as the Victoria and Albert Museum) a set (14 in all, mounted on two wooden panels) of ethnographical heads from India and High Asia, which were eventually added to the Museum’s collection.