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List of Polier albums

List of albums of Indian painting and calligraphy assembled for Antoine Polier

The Polier albums are the albums, mostly of Indian paintings and calligraphy, that Antoine Polier (1741–1795), a Swiss architect and art collector active in Mughal India, numbered as volumes of his own collection, together with albums made on his behalf as gifts for his European friends. Polier commissioned many of these albums, notably from a workshop run by Mihr Chand, an Indian miniature painter, from c. 1773 onwards. When Polier returned to his hometown of Lausanne, Switzerland, in September 1788, he brought more than 30 albums of Indian paintings with him. Of these, 25 albums were personally numbered by Polier. 21 of these 25 albums are known to be extant, with 11 of them in Berlin museums and two dispersed.

Polier is considered an "unparalleled figure" among collectors of muraqqas – albums with paintings and calligraphy – during the second half of the 18th century. Today, individual folios of his albums fetch high auction prices, with a single folio sold for £2,429,000 at Christie's in 2025 (Colonel Polier's nautch), a folio from the dispersed album known as Phillipps Ms 6730.

The Polier albums have to be distinguished from the unillustrated Indian manuscripts of Polier, which also carry a catalogued Polier number and were mainly purchased by Edward Ephraim Pote (1750–1832). They form the Pote Collection at King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College, both now on long-term deposit at the Cambridge University Library.