Madras Silver Gilt Bowl

Rare Parcel-Gilded, Pierced, Silver Footed Bowl with Pendant Red Glass Beads

Madura, Madras, South India

early 19th century

length: 20cm, height: 11cm, width: 14.6cm, weight: 534g

This magnificent and highly unusual footed dish is from Madura, one of the districts of the colonial Madras Presidency in South India. The bowl sits on a round, domed foot which rises to a lobed collar and then to the bowl itself.

The foot is very finely chased with scrolling leaf motifs of a type reminiscent of 17th and 18th century silverwork from the Coromandel Coast and Sri Lanka.

The bowl – which is of rectangular form at the top, but with rounded, lobed sides – is completely pierced and decorated with scrolling foliage and sets of sacred swans (hamsas) and mythical dog-lions. The piercing and engraving work on the bowl is exceptional and among the finest we have seen. The wide rim of the bowl is chased with delicate flower-leaf patterns, and has pieced sides from which dozes of red-glass beads are suspended with the aid of fine silver wire.

The bowl is further decorated by the use of beautiful parcel gilded (selective gold plating) which highlights the foot, the top rim and particular motifs about the bowl itself.

Such a fine, footed bowl might have been for the colonial market or might also have been commissioned for the local market. It might have been used in conjunction with a private Hindu altar for example.

Birdwood (1880, plate 8-bis) illustrates a pierced silver Hindu shrine from Madura which shows almost identical use of piercing work and motifs. Birdwood mentions that the shrine was among the items presented to the Prince of Wales on his visit to India and is what he describes (in 1880) as an example of ‘old Madras pierced and hammered silver, which is a wonderful example of manipulative dexterity.’

The bowl is in excellent condition given its age and the manner of its construction. There are minor splits to some of the piecing about the bowl but these are largely obscured by the general profusion of the decoration. Overall, this is an exceptional and rare example of South Indian silverwork.

References

Birdwood, G., The Industrial Arts of India, 1880.

Provenance

UK art market

Inventory no.: 2602

SOLD