The Mughal Emperor Akbar Shah II and Archibald Seton, British Resident at Delhi, riding an...

The Mughal Emperor Akbar Shah II and Archibald Seton, British Resident at Delhi, riding an elephant, North India, circa 1850-60, opaque pigment heightened with gold on paper,  Archibald Seton behind holding a morchal behind the smoking haloed and bejewelled ruler, the mahout holding the huqqa base and an ankus, the elephant richly bedecked, mounted, folio 46 x 40.4 cm.

Archibald Seton (1758 – 30 March 1818) was a Scottish East India Company colonial administrator, Resident and Civil servant. In 1780 Seton went to work for the East India Company's administration in Bengal, India. After passing through the routine of early service in India, Mr. Seton was successively entrusted with the charge of the collection of the Revenue, and the administration of Civil and Criminal Justice, in the Districts of Bhangolpore and Behar. He was then promoted to a seat in the Provincial Court of Justice in the Province of Behar ; and on the occasion of the cession of a portion of the dominions of the Nabob Vizier to the East India Company, in 1801, be was removed to the same station in the ceded provinces, and was one of the Gentlemen selected by Marquis Wellesley to assist Sir Henry Wellesley in the discharge of the trust of the office of Lieutenant governor of those Provinces.

In 1806, Seton was appointed to the office of President at the Court of Shah Alam II, at Delhi, and after Alam's death to that of his successor, Akbar Shah II. During Seton's time in Delhi the East India Company consolidated their rule of parts of the disintegrating Mughal Empire eventually dispensing with the illusion of ruling in the name of the Mughal monarch and removed his name from the Persian texts that appeared on the coins struck by the company in the areas under their control. The East India Company exiled Akbar Shah II's preferred choice of heir, Mirza Jahangir, after he attacked their Seton with a rifle in the Red Fort.