A collection of gleaming vessels made from mother-of-pearl seashells discovered at Penicuik Estate near Edinburgh were the star of Lyon & Turnbull’s Islamic & Indian Art auction in London last week after selling for over £75,000.
Mother-of-pearl was prized by the Portuguese settlers in Gujarat for its luminous and lustrous qualities, and they consequently commissioned craftsmen to decorate furniture, arms and armour, and whole dinner services with it, amongst other things.
At first, 19th century art historians believed these types of mother-of-pearl vessels were European due to their shape. However, a recorded example listed in an inventory dated to 1586 in the Dresden Green Vaults, shows that vessels of this style are known to have been brough to Europe as early as the 16th century. They were especially cherished by European nobility who exhibited them in their ‘kunstkammer’.
Similar scallop-edged dishes along with other shaped vessels decorated in mother-of-pearl are to be found in the Victoria & Albert Museum and in The British Museum.
