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Catalog
Premium Mother-of-pearl box with silver-plated brass mounting. The h…
See original version (French)
Mother-of-pearl box with silver-plated brass mounting. The h…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 161
Description
Mother-of-pearl box with silver-plated brass mounting. The hemispherical bowl is made of curved mother-of-pearl strips riveted to the lip and base; the base is decorated with a circular mother-of-pearl piece. The lid, which is ovoid in shape with raised edges, opens by means of a removable latch. It has a metal ring halfway up and a floral mother-of-pearl ornament at the top, inlaid with asphalt.
India, Gujarat, late 16th / early 17th century H. 13 cm - D. 14.3 cm
(wear and tear, minor restorations to the hinge and veneer)
The province of Gujarat, on the west coast of India, was mentioned by Western merchants from the early 16th century for its production of decorative objects and furniture in mother-of-pearl. This shimmering material could have been derived from a variety of gastropods, principally the large turban (turbo marmoratus) and the pearl oyster (pinctada sp.), two species common in the Persian Gulf and along the Gujarat coastline. Around 1595, the Persian chronicler Abul al-Fazl (1551-1602), who was close to the Mughal court, attested to the existence of workshops in the Ahmedabad region. It was in fact in the capital of Gujarat that the first production centres were undoubtedly established; other towns later became famous for this industry, such as Khambhat (Cambay) and Surate.
Initially destined for the Mughal court, Gujarati mother-of-pearl pieces were soon shipped to the Middle East via the Arabian Sea and along the east coast of Africa. From the early 16th century onwards, the European craze for these objects owed much to the presence of the Portuguese in the East Indies, and their decisive role in maritime trade. According to the Portuguese historian Gaspar
Correia (1492-1563), the explorer Vasco da Gama is said to have received a sumptuous bed decorated with gold and mother-of-pearl, made in Khambhat, from the Sultan of Malindi on his first voyage to India in 1498.
The Portuguese royal collections were the first to receive such pieces: a remarkable number of mother-of-pearl objects from Gujarat appear in Portuguese inventories from the 16th century.
Their success was soon confirmed by other European courts, whose growing demand led to an increase in production and an acceleration in exports. During the reigns of François I (1515-1547) and Henry VIII of England (1509-1547), many Indian mother-of-pearl pieces were imported into France and Great Britain, where they were often included in New Year's gifts.
Our box belongs to the first of the three categories defined by specialists in this production: pieces whose structure is made entirely of mother-of-pearl or, more rarely, of a wooden structure covered with a mother-of-pearl veneer. Its larger size is reminiscent of the small 'Iranian' wine goblets, two very similar examples of which are in a private collection in Lisbon (fig. a). This object also has the advantage of retaining its original brass mounting, which was often altered and replaced by a gilded silver mounting once the object arrived in Europe.
The British Museum holds a similar example (inv. no. AF 3171) with a mounting made in England in the 17th century.
(fig. b)
Works consulted:
Portugal and the World. Symbioses artistiques aux XVIème et XVIIème siècles [catalogue of the São Roque Gallery, Antiguidades & Galeria de arte], Lisbon, 2022, pp. 88-89.
H. M. Crespo, ed, A Mesa do Príncipe. Jantar e Cear na Corte de Lisboa (1500-1700): prata, madrepérola, cristal de rocha e porcelana, [catalogue of the Pedro Aguiar-Branco Gallery, March 2018], Lisbon, 2018, pp. 178-179.
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