VICTORIAN COLONIAL INDIA INTEREST, VELVET EMBROIDERED THREE FOLD FLOOR SCREEN CIRCA 187Os each fold with two panels with applique silk needlework depicting roses, thistles, shamrocks, and lilies, against a faded red velvet ground, the same on the reverse, in an ebonised frame, bearing a brass plaque engraved 'THIS EMBROIDERY CAME OFF THE DAIS ERECTED AT DELHI/ FROM WHICH/ QUEEN VICTORIA WAS PROCLAIMED EMPRESS OF INDIA/ 1877' (168.5cm high, 175cm wide) Footnote: Note: On the 1st January 1877, the 1st Earl of Lytton, Viceroy of India, read a proclamation declaring Queen Victoria as Empress of India at the Delhi Durbar, a mass assembly of dignitaries, maharajas, and nawabs, held on the vast plain of Coronation Park in Delhi. These needlework panels were located on the central hexagonal tent-like pavilion, or shamiana, positioned at the frieze in a band above bannerettes encircling the upper tent-like cover, some 35 feet above the ground. Lytton insisted that no Indian imagery or designs were to be used in the decorative scheme for the event, although he did allow the Indian lotus to accompany the English rose, Scottish thistle, and Irish shamrock on the frieze, all represented here. A contemporary photograph of the pavilion showing the panels in situ can be found in the Royal Collection, https://www.rct.uk/collection/2917578/the-imperial-assemblage-delhi-1877