Lot 73
£8,820
Auction: Indian Art | Lots 67 to 83 | 12 June at 10am
of bulbous form on an upright ring-foot, with long cylindrical neck rising into a flaring short spout, the body profusely decorated in repoussé with spiralling bands alternately narrow and undecorated, and wider ones decorated in relief with floral scroll with animal and bird designs, the neck decorated with a repeat pattern of cusped and lobed cartouches containing flowers and animals, the spout with a repeat design of lotus petals
598gr., 21cm (8 ¼in) high
Note:
This guldan or flower flask is rare. There is only one other known published flask that is almost identical in terms of size (21cm high), technique applied and detailed decoration, which is in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art (see Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, pl. 9, inv. no. 76. 1289). Zebrowski attributes the Mittal flask to North India, 17th Century. Curiously, the same flask was exhibited earlier at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1982 and attributed to Rajasthan (?), mid-18th Century, with an end note that not enough study had been made on silver manufacture before the 19th Century (see The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, Exhibition Catalogue, Victoria and Albert Museum, 21 April to 22 April 1982, plate 341). In both cases, a 19th century attribution has been ruled out.
The shape of the guldan or flask is known from carving decoration of the Exterior Walls of the Kanch Mahal, Sikandra, dating to the first quarter of the 17th Century (opp. cit. plates 273 and 274).
In a later chapter of Zebrowski’s book dedicated to surahis and guldans, (op. cit, chapter 13) he illustrates many examples of the guldan shape in metalware, including bidri-ware and brass. However, in silver, the present lot and the Mittal example appear to be the only known examples in this shape.
The unusual and exquisite spiralling decoration can be compared with decoration on a cast silver shallow container, attributed to North India, 17th century (see opp. cit, plates 10a and 10b); and the decoration on a rosewater sprinkler in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (op. cit. plate 14).
Other examples of this flask-shape in rare mediums such as glass and gold have sold well at auction. For an example in enamelled glass, see Sotheby’s, Arts of the Islamic World, 13th October 2004, lot 122.