Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 130
An Indo-Portuguese mother of pearl dish Gujarat, India, 17th Century
22 May 2025, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£7,000 - £9,000
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Oliver White
Head of Department
An Indo-Portuguese mother of pearl dish
Gujarat, India, 17th Century
Gujarat, India, 17th Century
of shallow rounded form on a short foot, constructed from pinned sections of mother-of-pearl forming radiating panels around a central roundel, the rim with scalloped edge, brass bands to the underside of rim and foot
10 cm. diam.
10 cm. diam.
Footnotes
Provenance
Formerly in a Scottish private collection, Penicuik House, Midlothian.
Given the western shape of these dishes, art historians of the 19th century initially thought of them as European. 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 Portuguese in India are particularly known for commissioning Gujarati mother-of-pearl wares. In some cases, 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). It is unusual for a dish of this type to be the size of the present lot. It is more common to find slightly larger bowls, such as examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Accession No. LOAN:GILBERT.993-2008) and (Accession No. M.245-1924). The present lot is therefore an unusual and rare example of its type.
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.