Exceptional & Rare Chiselled Silver Water Flask & Lid

Exceptional & Rare Chiselled Silver Water Flask & Lid

North India or the Deccan

17th-18th century

height: 27.5cm, weight: 331g

This splendid example of early Indian silverwork is of a water flask with and stopper. The flask has a flattened, globular body, an elongated neck and a domed stopper with a bud-like finial.

The body of the flask is gadrooned with sixteen ribs. Each rib is deeply chiselled with floral and leaf scrolls, against a tooled ground. The flowers and leaves are further decorated with engraving. The shoulder of the body is decorated with sixteen raised petal motifs each of which also is chiselled with further petal motifs.

The neck is chiselled with a single, twisting band decorated with flowers and leaves.

The flask sits on a flattened base.

The stopper is connected to the neck by a silver chain (a later addition). The eyelets through which the chain pass point down, rather than horizontally, as is more typical of eyelets of later pieces.

This flask is mirrored by a Bidri example attributed to the 16th-17th century Deccan illustrated in Zebrowski (1997, p. 185). The silver on this piece also has parallels with a silver flask attributed to the mid-17th century and illustrated in Zebrowski (p. 38). This flask is chiselled with twisting gadroons and with a tooled ground. Zebrowski (p. 46) also illustrates a silver hookah base attributed to the late 17th century Deccan with related chiselling.

The proportions of the flask tend to be those of flasks produced in India in the seventeenth century. Zebrowski (p. 68) illustrates two jewelled flasks now in The Hermitage, St Petersburg, which have similar proportions. Later flasks from northern India tend to have more rounded bodies and ring feet.

Overall, this is a very rare and very fine piece. The chiselling of the silverwork is deep and striking. There are no losses or repairs but a fine patina consistent with the earlier dating.

Provenance

UK art market

References

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

Zebrowski, M., Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, Alexandria Press, 1997.

Inventory no.: 1527

SOLD