A fine repoussé gold cup and cover
North India, 19th Century
of waisted flaring form with domed lid, the handle of compressed globular form surmounted by a bud finial, profusely chased and decorated in repoussé with three lobed medallions containing cranes flying on a ground of floral interlace, the interstices with floral interlace, above and below bands of undulating floral vines, the lid with small birds amidst foliage, a band of undulating floral vines near the rim, a frieze of large foliate motifs radiating towards the handle, the base with a central flowerhead surrounded by concentric bands of foliate motifs, gold tested as 21-22 carat
15.5 cm. high; 228 g.
Footnotes:
The shape of the present lot almost certainly has its origin in medieval European goblets such as the Mérode cup in the Victoria and Albert Museum (403:1, 2-1872), though the domed lid has an altogether more Indian feel. A Mughal silver beaker and cover in the same Museum, dated to the 17th Century, has the most closely comparable form (inv. no. IS 31-1961). This silver beaker was once presumably inlaid with polychrome enamel and demonstrates decorative influence from further east in China which, like the present lot with its incorporation of South East Asian decorative motifs, serves to demonstrate the ingenuity of North Indian gold and silversmiths and their use of international stylistic vernaculars. For a repoussé gold flask dated to the second half of the 18th Century see Christie's, Arts of India, 25 May 2017, lot 112. A late 16th/ early 17th Century repoussé gold huqqa base attributed to Deccan or Western India is in the al-Sabah Collection (see Manuel Keene, Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals, exhibition catalogue, London, 2001, no. 3.2, p. 45).
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