Gujarat Brass Pitcher or Jug

Unusual Portuguese-Style Brass Pitcher

This fine, sculptural water pitcher or jug is of cast brass. It has a domed, ring foot; a spherical body; a thick neck which leads to a saddled-shaped rim; and a solid-cast, applied ‘S’-shaped handle with curled finials.

The deep valley-form of the rim might well have been for a towel or cloth to rest across the top of the vessel. Most probably the pitcher was meant to hold water for hand washing, and perhaps for drinking water.

The form has parallels in mother-of-pearl pitchers made in Gujarat for the Portuguese market. See Jordan

et al (1996, p. 210) for an example attributed to the first half of the seventeenth century.

The pitcher is unusual. It is clearly of Indian origin and yet we are not aware of another such example, in brass, that has been published.

The item has a fine, buttery patina. There is a neat (very) old repair to the pouring part of the rim (see below).