Gold Vermilion Fish Container, India

Gold Vermilion Fish-Form Container with Ruby Eyes (Macchli ka Sinduran)

This stunning model fish of high-grade solid gold served as a container for red vermilion powder to be used for personal adornment, but also to decorate images of household Hindu gods. Others of similar form perhaps served as containers for lime to be used as part of a betel nut or paan quid. Invariably, such fish models are of silver and gilded silver. This is the only example that we have seen that is made entirely of gold.

The head is hinged and opens to reveal a small compartment for storing the powder inside. A prominent gold catch below the head keeps the head closed. The hinge to the top of the head is disguised with a triangular piece of gold.

The body of the fish comprises a series of plates of increasingly smaller size sewn together with gold wire to give the body of the fish form and flexibility.

Rubies in box mounts serve as the ‘eyes’ for the fish. There is a gold wire ‘whisker’ to either side of the head.

The fish has a dorsal fin and two adipose fins to its top, a prominent tail or caudal fin, pectoral fins to either side, and a pair of pelvic fins below the body. The pelvic fins allow the fish to stay upright freely when being displayed.

The dorsal area is engraved with scale motifs.

Possibly, the form of the fish is modelled on a

mahseer, a fierce salmon-like fish known in South Indian rivers, with similar body shape, fins and whiskers.

The fish is in excellent condition. It is of a good size, and is noticeably heavy in the hand. Indeed, compared with the more usual silver examples, the heaviness of the gold gives the fish a satisfying and realistic weight, and the relative stiffness of the gold plates that comprise the flexible body combined with the weight of the gold suggest the muscularity of a fresh fish!

Terlinden (1987, p. 95) illustrates several silver examples.

Terlinden, C., Mughal Silver Magnificence, Antalga, 1987.

private collection, Switzerland