with globular body, the truncated neck with moulding and neck ring, flaring towards the rim,the body with a bold frieze of stylised poppy plants, the shoulder with a band of trailing floral vine between bands of cross motifs within circles, below the mouth a frieze of single stem poppies
16.5 cm. high

Footnotes

The huqqa base is decorated in the reverse or aftabi technique, where the background is in silver overlay and the motifs have been cut through to reveal the black base metal underneath. Stylised Hyderabad poppies were frequently depicted in eighteenth century Deccani decorative arts and often used in the foreground gardens of Hyderabad paintings. A bell-shaped huqqa base with almost identical poppies in the aftabi technique is illustrated in Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, p.237, ill.398.

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A silver-overlaid brass-inlaid alloy bidri Huqqa Base Bidar, Deccan, 18th Century

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Oliver White