
Oliver White
Head of Department
£3,000 - £4,000

Head of Department
A number of similar small dishes in this technique are known. Two comparable examples are in a private collection (The Heritage of Rauluchnatim, Exhibition Catalogue, Lisbon, 1996, nos.13 and 14, pp.202-3).
Given the western shape of these dishes, they were initially thought to be European by art historians in the 19th Century. Gujarati dishes of this design are known to have been imported to Europe from as early as the second quarter of the 16th Century, based on a documented example in the Green Vaults in Dresden. The commissioning of Gujarati mother-of-pearl wares is particularly associated with the Portuguese in India. In some cases, these dishes are known to have accompanied larger mother-of-pearl ewers, as illustrated by two examples presently in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (inv.no. 4282-1857 and 4283-1857). For a discussion on these garnitures of Gujarati mother-of-pearl articles, see A. Jaffer, Luxury Goods From India: the art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker, London : V&A, 2002, pp.38-39.
Similar dishes were sold at Christie's, King Street London, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 7 April 2011, lot 255; 31 March 2009, lot 212; and 7th October 2008, lot 264.
This lot has been withdrawn.