Silver Krishna, India

Seven Miniature Solid-Cast Silver Deities, including Krishna

This unusual set of seven very small Hindu images are made of solid-cast, high-grade silver. Each is finely rendered given its miniature size. The set has clear age: the contours and extremities have been softened from handling.

The seven have been cast for a small family shrine, or possibly to accompany an image of the infant Krishna perhaps as ‘play things’ for the god.

The images comprise two images of the crawling, infant Krishna; one of Krishna as the flute-playing cow herder; an image of Saraswati (playing a lute); two images of the monkey god Hanuman; and one of what most probably is Vishnu.

The images are tiny but perfectly formed. Their size and the material from which they have been cast marks them out as quite unusual.