Lot Essay
The motifs that cover this bowl and cover are beautifully observed, the tulip flowerheads portrayed just at the moment when the first petal has separated itself from the bud, when the flower is just at the point of showing its full glory. The tulip is one of the most frequently found flowers of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, being found both as a decorative detail or as the subject of flower studies in its own right (Stuart Carey Welch: 'India -- Art and Culture 1300-1900', Exhibition Catalogue, New York, 1985, no. 161, pp.245-247).
The restraint of the enamels, both in colouring and drawing, is typical of the second half of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries. Three covered octagonal boxes with trays, one in the Hermitage, one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, a third in a private collection, show this development, with the Hermitage example being the earliest and most restrained ('The Indian Heritage -- Court Life and the Arts under Mughal Rule, Exhibition Catalogue, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982, nos. 327, 332 and 330). All three use the same colours of enamels as are found here, but with complete floral sprays rather than the cut flowerheads seen on the present bowl. Also related is a covered vase with white floral sprays within a white lattice on a green ground, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Stuart Carey Welch, op.cit., no.181, p.274). As here, one of the most attractive of all the areas of enamelling is reserved for the base of the vessel, in that case a flowerhead surrounded by a wreath 'The Indian Heritage', op.cit., ill. p.113).
The restraint of the enamels, both in colouring and drawing, is typical of the second half of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries. Three covered octagonal boxes with trays, one in the Hermitage, one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, a third in a private collection, show this development, with the Hermitage example being the earliest and most restrained ('The Indian Heritage -- Court Life and the Arts under Mughal Rule, Exhibition Catalogue, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982, nos. 327, 332 and 330). All three use the same colours of enamels as are found here, but with complete floral sprays rather than the cut flowerheads seen on the present bowl. Also related is a covered vase with white floral sprays within a white lattice on a green ground, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Stuart Carey Welch, op.cit., no.181, p.274). As here, one of the most attractive of all the areas of enamelling is reserved for the base of the vessel, in that case a flowerhead surrounded by a wreath 'The Indian Heritage', op.cit., ill. p.113).