The centrepiece illustrates an incident during the battle of Maharajpoor on December 29th 1843 during the Gwalior campaign where the British faced the forces of Maharaja Scindiah. Captain Arthur William FitzRoy Somerset (1816-1845), elder son of Lord FitzRoy Somerset was riding through a maize field with General Churchill when they were set upon by two Mahrattas. The General was mortally wounded but Arthur Somerset killed one of the assailants and disarmed the other. During this encounter he sustained three sabre cuts to his left arm, a musket shot through his right arm and was wounded in both legs. His father commissioned this centrepiece as a memento of this courageous event and the tulwar which he captured in this encounter was sent home (lot 87).
Arthur Somerset died of his wounds after the battle of Ferozeshah in the Punjab, on Christmas Day, 1845 and his name appears on the Guards Officers Memorial at the Royal Military Chapel, Wellington barracks.