Captain Marryat's Burmese collection and the Rath, or Burmese Imperial State Carriage

Abstract

In January 1826 Captain Frederick Marryat presented two large Burmese objects to the British Museum, but in December the Trustees turned down his offer of his entire collection. This article publishes Marryat's manuscript catalogue of his collection, and discusses how such objects were obtained during the first Anglo-Burmese war. Marryat displayed his Burmese artefacts to the London public, first inserting some into the exhibition in the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly of the Rath, or Burmese Imperial State Carriage. When this exhibition closed in December 1826, Marryat offered his collection to the British Museum. After its rejection, he deposited it in 1827 in the museum of the Royal Asiatic Society. Finally the article records the dispersal of Marryat's collection, and the present location of the few objects known to have belonged to him. A postscript notes the re-emergence in the 1840s of the Rath, as a circus parade wagon.