Silver Bowl, Lucknow, India, circa 1890

Large Silver Lucknow Bowl

This beautiful, large repoussed bowl has a scalloped rim comprising twelve pierced lunettes each decorated with four fish. It stands on a splayed foot. The sides of the bowl are decorated in high relief with six village life and hunting scenes. Each scene is separated by a prominent fish with crisply repoussed scales. The foot is similarly decorated with fish between which are scenes of animals and a holy man.

The bowl is finely hammered, typical of Lucknow work. Some old repair work is evident.

The bowl is notable for the number of times the fish motif appears on it. Lucknow was the capital city of the Kingdom of Oudh and the fish was the emblem of the Nawabs of Oudh.

See the images below of the Nawabs’ fish emblem as it is employed in the stucco cladding of the Bara Imambara complex in Lucknow.