Karen Taylor specialises in British art of all periods and acts as a principal and agent. She offers independent, impartial guidance on all aspects of collecting from acquiring a single picture to forming or disposing of a collection. She organises regular events and numbers British and International institutions amongst her customers.

Isle of Sumbawa, Malay Archipelago Signed, inscribed and dated l.l.: Isle of Sumbawa./Malay Archipelago. (& Vlack?)/May 7th. 1875/C.F.G.C., watercolour over pencil 12.4 x 56.5 cm.; 4 7/8 x 22 ¼ inches Sumbawa is one of the lesser Sunda Islands chain, an archipelago within the Indonesian archipelago, which stretches east of Java and north of Australia. The islands of Lombok and Flores are to the west and east respectively.

Tangalla (Tangalle) Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Tangalla/C.F. Gordon Cummming./Nov. 22nd 1873, and signed by J.H. Campbell, Isabell Lloyd Hill and H. Lloyd Hill, watercolour over pencil 25 x 75 cm.; 9 ¾ x 29 ½ inches The artist and her party visited the District Judge at Tangalle, ‘a hospitable Scotsman’ who lived in an old bungalow by the sea. Tangalle was ‘a pretty little seaside town’ about twenty miles away east of Matara, on Sri Lanka’s south coast, where the artist was staying. She writes about ‘the charms of that shore, with the quaintly-built canoes, with great outriggers and nets hung up to dry, and the picturesque groups of brown figures…’ Two Happy Years, p. 454.

Raldung from Chigaom over Jula Inscribed l.l.: Raldung from Chigaom over Jula., watercolour over pencil 17.3 x 29.5 cm.; 6 ¾ x 11 5/8 inches A ‘Jula’ (a rope-bridge) runs over the Sutlej river by Chagaon in Himachal Pradesh. The artist recorded an encounter where ‘we found a most horribly unsafe jula- four ropes, quite decayed, stretching from rock to rock, while far below raged the turbid river, swollen by the mass of melted snow,’ which she was eventually forced to cross, In the Himalayas, p, 446.

Hindoo Temple, Jubblepore (Jabalpur) Inscribed and dated l.l.: Hindoo Temple/built before the Christian Era/at the Marble Rocks/Jubblepore-/Nov. 30th/69, pencil with watercolour 17 x 35 cm.; 6 ¾ x 13 ¾ inches This temple in Behdaghat, Jabalpur, is a Chausath Yogini Temple, dedicated to the worship of yoginis, specifically honouring female divinity. The circular wall surrounding the temple is decorated by 84 niches in which sculpted yoginis are visible. The artist encountered this impressive site en route to see the famous ‘Marble Rocks’ of the sacred Nerbudda river, In the Himalayas, p 596.

Kurunégala from the top of the Rock Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Kurunégala from the top of the Rock/C.F Gordon Cumming./April 18th 1874/Nalunde Hills/Rock Temple/Yakdessa Gala/Devil Dancers Rock/140, and signed by three others including G.J. Julungalle (?), watercolour over pencil 29 x 66.5 cm.; 11 3/8 x 26 ¼ inches Kurunegalla, 58 miles north east of Colombo, was Sri Lanka’s capital from 1293 to 1341, and the site of an extensive royal complex, which included the palace of the tooth relic. The town and lake lie at the base of a large red rock shaped like a giant beetle, three miles long. The countryside is a mixture of paddy fields and palms. Plumbago mining (an historic name for graphite) took place here.

Bit of the snowy range from Yakko, Simla Inscribed and dated l.r.: Bit of the snowy Range/from Yakko-/Simla/69, pencil 26 x 36.2 cm.; 10 ¼ x 14 ¼ inches The artist, an intrepid mountaineer, noted her disappointment at the optical scale of this mountain range in her book In the Himalayas. She wrote of how ‘we had expected to find ourselves close to the snows’ and yet saw, ‘peaks of glittering snow, which seem only like crested waves on the sea-line.’ Nevertheless ‘after a while we learned to know and love each line of that picture,’ In the Himalayas, p 299.