Indian Colonial Silver Tea Set

Fine, Three-Piece Silver Tea Set

This three-piece solid silver tea set is of exceptional quality. Each piece stands on an oval, slightly flared foot, has a gently curved body, which rises to a flattened, oval top set with an oval, domed lid mounted with a bud-like finial.

The body and lid of each piece is chased with very fine, intricate, Islamic-inspired floral and foliate scrollwork that is typical of the finest Kutch silverwork. More unusually, the top section of each piece has a band of animals such as deer and lions amid foliage. The combination of typically Kutch foliate scrollwork with animals is a pleasing variation on the more usual Kutch work.

The teapot has two original ivory insulators in the handle. The spout of the teapot is in the shape of a bird’s head. The spout of the creamer or milk jug is in the form of a particularly well-formed lion’s head.

The set is either of Kutch or Karachi workmanship. The work is typically Kutch but after a particularly serious famine, some Kutch silversmiths relocated to Karachi where they continued their work following the Kutch aesthetic but with minor variations, one of which was to separate the decoration on the bodies of their teapots and related vessels into panels as can be see in the set here. Accordingly, whilst the work on this set is clearly Kutch in inspiration, it might have been undertaken by Kutch silversmiths in Karachi.

Dehejia, V., Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj, Mapin, 2008.

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