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Correspondence concerned with conservation of the Society's collections within this time period:

• Correspondence and instructions re cleaning marble using Sepiolite, 2 pieces, typed, dated 22 March 1968.
• Correspondence with British Museum regarding creating stands for sculptures, 8 pieces, handwritten and typed, dated 1 April 1969 - 13 October 1969.
• Correspondence with E. Panetta, V & A Museum concerning the restoration of a teak stool, 5 pieces, typed, dated 12 March 1969 - 15 April 1969.
• Correspondence with the India Office Library concerning the laminating of a manuscript, 1 piece, typed, dated 20 December 1973.
• Letter from Valery (Gibson), Secretary, Royal Asiatic Society, to Dennis (Duncanson), President. to give a report on Mr Cox's opinion of the condition of the portrait of William Havell (RAS Cat.01.011) and of a further watercolour, unnamed, and whether to undertake their conservation. Handwritten, dated 26 January 1982.
• Correspondence with the Armouries, Tower of London concerning the restoration of a mail shirt, 12 pieces, handwritten and typed, dated 24 September 1975 - 22 August 1983.
• Correspondence concerning the conservation of James Wales' painting of Madhu Rao Narayan, the Maratha Peshwa (RAS Head Cat. 01.014), 5 pieces, handwritten and typed, dated 25 August 1982 - 14 December 1982.
• Correspondence concerning insurance for the portraits of Jamsetjee Boman Jee and Nowrojee Jamset jee and the painting of the Judicial enquiry at Canton while they were undergoing conservation, typed, 2 pieces, dated 17 January 1983 - 7 February 1983.
• Letter from A.D.H. Bivar to Dennis Duncanson concerning the storage of collections in a basement room, 1 piece, typed, dated 16 June 1983.
• Copy of a letter from Godfrey Goodwin to 'Neale; to express his appreciation for the quality of the conservation of two watercolour paintings, 1 piece, handwritten, dated 10 July 1989.

Information about, and evidence of engagement with the artworks of the Society. For collections with a significant amount of material, a separate subseries was created.

Information about, and evidence of engagement with the artwork collections of the Society. These are:

• Correspondence concerning the possible sale of, and notes about, the Qajar painting of two girls (RAS Cat.01.002) by an unknown artist. This sale did not go ahead. Typed and handwritten, 18 pieces, dated 14 May 1976 - 21 February 1978.
• 'Sotheby's Inventory and Valuation of the Oil Paintings, Busts and Plaques, Drawings, Works by Oriental Artists, Miscellaneous Engravings, Aquatints and Lithographs, Prints, Manuscripts and Indian Miniatures at 60 Queen's Gardens, London, W2 3AF and the Victoria and Albert Museum, to property of Royal Asiatic Society, taken for the purpose of Insurance at Mid-Sale Estimate, June 1992' - valuation report and allied correspondence between James Stourton, Director, Sotheby's and the Royal Asiatic Society, dated 11-29 June 1992.
• Reviews for the 'Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings, Engravings and Busts in the Collections of the Royal Asiatic Society' by Raymond Head, published by the Society in 1991. Copies of reviews from Ars Asiatiques XLVII 1992, Oriental Art, Winter 1993/3, and History Today February 1992.
• 'Equestrian portrait of Dara Shikoh' (RAS Cat.053.001) - postcard from a photograph by Kevin Lovelock, British Museum, 1998.
• Descriptions of the Chinese popular prints donated by Brian Houghton Hodgson and John Robert Morrison, description by Yin Hwang, dated 2000.
• 'Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey Phipps Baker, 1786-1850' by Stuart Wilkinson, Society of Dyers and Colourists - article about Phipps Baker who donated a collection of artworks of Java. The article is undated.
• Correspondence between Dr Patrick Tuck, University of Liverpool and the Royal Asiatic Society concerning the use of the image of the Chinese Court of Justice (RAS Cat.01.001) as the image for the conference menu card at the 'British Ships in China Seas Conference' held 17-20 September 2002. Correspondence is dated 31 May 2002.
• 'Ethiopian Paintings at the Royal Asiatic Society' by Alison Ohta - an article within The Anglo-Ethiopian Society News File, Summer 2008.
• 'Ethiopian Paintings held by the Royal Asiatic Society' by Geoffrey Ben-Nathan - an article within The Anglo-Ethiopian Society News File, Summer 2009, in relation to a lecture delivered by Heidi Cutts (British Museum) and Dorothea McEwan (Warburg Institute) on 24 March 2009. Note that in the same booklet there is another article by Chris Grant on the 2009 AGM lecture delivered by Louise Carver on population and sustainability in Ethiopia.
• Article relating to Dora Gordine and her connection with the Society. These are: 'Dora Gordine and the Royal Asiatic Society', 'Dora Gordine and Freya Stark', both by Dr Jonathan Black, Senior Research Fellow, Dorich House Museum, dated February 2008; and a copy of ‘Alive and significant: Aspects of Indian Art, Stella Kramrisch and Dora Gordine in South Kensington c. 1940' by Sarah Victoria Turner, published in ‘Wasafiri’, 2011. This latter article is an electronic article first created in 2011 and made into an archival document in 2025.
• 'Age of discovery' by Fran Gillespie - article concerning the exhibition 'India: East/West' of paintings and drawings from the Society's Collections held at the Virginal Commonwealth University, Qatar, March 2010. The article is from the Gulf Times, 25 March 2010.
• 'The Jones collection of botanical drawings at the Royal Asiatic Society' - script of a talk given by Kathy Lazenbatt, Royal Asiatic Society Librarian, at the Botany in British India study day, British Library, 7 December 2012.
• 'Representations of Nepal in the nineteenth century: the watercolour paintings of Dr. Henry Ambrose Oldfield', a dissertation submitted for the University of Sussex MA in Art History, 2 September 2013 in which the Hodgson Collection of Nepal paintings were used in the candidate's research.
• 'Conservation of a Shi'ite Pilgrimage Scroll from the Royal Asiatic Society' by Mathilde Renauld in the brochure for the MA Conservation 2018, Camberwell College of the Arts, London.
• 'A Global Society', an article in Asian Affairs, July 2017. concerning the new acquisition of a portrait of recent presidents and the director of the Society.

Correspondence, Reports, Lists and Minutes concerning the transfer of museum objects to the Victoria & Albert Museum and British Museum. These are:

• Letter from Alex H Wilson, Solicitor to Miss Sykes, Secretary to Royal Asiatic Society to state that there should be no objection to the Society's objects being transferred from the Victoria and Albert Museum to the British Museum with the consent of both bodies and the acknowledgement from the British Museum that they are held in account for the Royal Asiatic Society. Dated 5 April 1924. With this letter are two letters concerned with the transfer of the Museum objects to the India Office, one dated 1869.
• Letter from Victoria and Albert Museum to Miss Ella Sykes, Royal Asiatic Society to discuss the items that were in their Collections belonging to the Society, that had been transferred with the India Office collections and to send a list of these items (not with the letter). He writes how best to accommodate the objects either at the V&A or at the British Museum or returned to the Society. He also confirms that the Maori green-stone club will go to the Otago Museum. Dated 11 April 1924.
• Correspondence between Mr L. Hopkins, L.D. Barnett, British Museum, and Ella Sykes, Royal Asiatic Society, concerning transfer of items to the British Museum. Three handwritten letters, dated 14-23 April 1924.
• List of the items held at the Victoria and Albert Museum with key to their disposal. Typed with handwritten annotations.
• Report from an interview at the Victoria and Albert Museum concerning the sale of the Jahangir Cup to the Museum. Typed with handwritten notes. Date of interview, 27 May 1924.
• Letter from R. Sharp, Department of Printed Books, British Museum to L.D. Barnett to agree the transfer of some material, Handwritten with printed letterhead, dated 20 November 1925.
• Three reports from the Committee on the Society's Collections of Antiquities and on the Objects belonging to the Society now in the Victoria and Albert Museum which outline the decisions made regarding the collections. One also has handwritten notes and is dated by hand 30 November 1925. One is undated, the third is dated 3 December 1925 (this is a copy).
• Correspondence with L.D. Barnett concerning the sale of items at Steven's Auction Rooms. Two letters, one typed, one handwritten, dated 28 December 1925 and 29 January 1926.
• Sales catalogue for Stevens Auction Rooms Ltd. for auction of items belonging to the Society not wanted by the V&A or British Museums. Printed material, auction date 12 January 1926.

Acknowledgement slip for the disposal of some volumes of the Numismatic Chronicle to the British Museum. One item.

Since the 1960s the Society had deposited on indefinite loan some copper-plate grants and other inscriptions with the British Museum. The material in this subseries consist of correspondence and documentation concerning this loan.

• Correspondence between the British Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society concerning the initial loan and the continuing care of the items. Typed and printed, 12 pieces, dated 29 November 1967 - 5 March 1973.
• Correspondence between the British Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society concerning indemnity insurance for the items on loan. Typed and handwritten, 4 pieces, dated 16 September 1993 - 25 October 1993.
• Correspondence and list between the British Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society concerning the ongoing loan and production of photographs, Typed, 4 pieces, dated 20 April 1998 - 7 September 1999.
• Correspondence between the British Museum and the Royal Asiatic Society concerning obtaining a full list of the items loaned. Computer printed, 1 piece, dated 30 March 2016.

Two sets of postcards with illustrations from manuscripts:

• A set of 13 postcards with images from Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah of Firdausi, RAS Persian MS 239.
• Three postcards, 2 showing images from RAS Persian MS 239 and one image from the Gulistan of Sa'di, RAS Persian MS 258. These were photographed by Kevin Lovelock, British Museum. 1998.

Collections information and engagement connected to our Manuscripts collections.

Correspondence, insurance quotes, and indemnity certificates concerning the permanent loan of material to the British Museum. This material consists of:

• The commemorative inscription of the Ananta-Vasudeva temple at Bhuvanesvar, dated 1278 A.D.
• Three Ujjain copper-plate grants of the rulers of Malwa
• The Taxila Plate of Patika.
• Other stone inscriptions

These items were already at the British Museum before the first letter dated 6 June 1967 and have remained there. The correspondence includes some to confirm that the material is still with the British Museum. Much of the correspondence are photocopies of original letters. 67 items.

Most of the Society's objects were dispersed to other collections at an early stage of its history. However a few remain. Information about them is:

• Suit of armour - correspondence about a suit of Asian armour within its collections and the likely provenance. Typed and handwritten, 9 pieces, dated 6 December 1930 - M may 1932 (see RAS COLL8/5 for more information about its conservation).
• Notes on an Arabic Celestial Globe and a Phoenician tombstone - both transferred to the British Museum, Typed, 1 piece, undated.
• Correspondence between Professor J. Ryckmans and the Royal Asiatic Society concerning South Arabian inscriptions within the collections. Typed and handwritten, 20 pieces, dated 19 July 1977 - 17 February 1978.
• The Council Room Table - two articles: 'The New Council Room Table' by Alison Ohta extracted from a Society newsletter, unknown date; and 'The Jhansi Table', article originally written 3 October 2012, archival document created in 2025.
• Bookmarks for 'Statue of Zhenwu, the Dark Warrior' and 'Arrow Vase from ritual to game', objects lent to the Society but the Horniman Museum as part of the Objects in Focus project. The statue was lent in autumn 2016 and the vase in autumn 2018.
• 'Collecting Oriental and Asiatic Arms and Armour: The Activities of British and East India Company Officers,c.1800-1850' by Malcolm Mercer - a copy of the article first published in Arms and Armour, 2018. This gives background information to our suit of armour.
• Gravestone of Sir Stamford Raffles - the Society took in this gravestone in 2018. The note, 'Provenance of the Raffles gravestone donated to the Royal Asiatic Society on 11 May 2018' (created in 2018, archival document created in 2025) give details of its provenance. 'Two Tombstones, One Man' by Rosie Llewellyn Jones, an article in the Chowkidar, Autumn 2018, the publication for the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.
• 'Information about Japanese gravestones provided by Yang Fu, 12 October 2018' - interpretation details for the inscriptions on the gravestones. Electronic document created in 2018, archival document created in 2025.
• Black and white photographs and descriptions of the copper plate inscriptions belonging to the Society on permanent loan to the British Museum.