- Antoine Polier
Infobox Person
name = Colonel Antoine-Louis Henri Polier
birth_date = 1741
birth_place =Lausanne
death_date =7 February 1795
death_place =France
education =
occupation = Engineer
spouse = three
parents =
children = threeColonel Antoine-Louis Henri Polier (1741-1795) was a Swiss or French adventurer, art collector, military engineer and soldier who made his fortune in India in the eighteenth century.
Early life
thumb|200px|Antoine_Polier,_General_Claude_Martin,_John_Wombwell,_assay_master,_and_Johann_Zoffany,_the_painter,_surrounded_by_servants_and_PolierClaude Martin rect 124 147 181 298 Antoine-Louis Polierrect 208 146 253 217Johann Zoffany desc noneOpinions vary as to whether Antoine-Louis was born in Lausanne of French lineage, but he could speak French and later Hindustani and Persian.
left|thumb|300px|Colonel_Mordauntrect 367 145 406 198 General Martin - Soldierrect 331 73 355 126 Antoine Louis Polier - Soldierrect 443 114 480 169 Zoffany the painterrect 227 150 278 237 Nawab Wazir of Oudhrect 418 84 444 143 Ozias Humphrey - painterrect 228 281 334 336
cock fighting desc none
Antoine Polier was a Swiss engineer from Lausanne who fought with
Robert Clive and became a rich trader. He devoted his free moments to collecting manuscripts in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic.Maya Jasanoff, 'Edge of Empire: Conquest and Collecting on the Eastern Frontiers of the British Empire, 1750-1850' Fourth Estate]He had two Indian wives, Jugnu and Zinat, one senior and one junior and three children. He acquired a large art collection and became rich working for the Indian royalty. In 1788 he left his Indian wives with Claude Martincite web| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=_IdAmZ5s7UcC&dq=%22claude+martin%22+india&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=NEfr9x4_nt&sig=fkUhk8kpdiVl4cD1hHiVQx8_26I#PPA285,M1 Polier| title=A Man of the Enlightenment in 18th Century India: The Letters of Claude Martin, 1766-1800|accessdate=2007-05-17] and settled in France with an unfortunate timing as he arrived in time for the French revolution. Having purchased a chateau and taking a third wife (a non-Muslim one), he was stabbed on February 9 1795 in the terror that followed the French revolution. [
William Dalrymple [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/incomingFeeds/article760539.ece?token=null&offset=24 'Antoines Junior Bibi' Sept 27 2002 Timesonline] accessed July 2007]Legacy
His collection of miniatures are in Berlin.
References
ee also
Claude Martin Further reading
* A European Experience of the Mughal Orient: The I’jaz-i Arsalani (Persian Letters, 1773-1779) of Antoine-Louis-Henri Polier - Translated with an introduction by Muzaffar Alam and Seema Alavi. Pub.Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 564980 X
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