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Lot Essay
This kind of decoration was referred to as chini kana, a term meaning "China room", and applied to small wall-niches in which were placed bottles, vases and other vessels
Similar though less stylised and floriated flasks arranged in niches carved in red sandstone are illustrated in Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, 1997, p. 185, pl. 269. That decoration is from the Gate Pavilion of the Suraj Bhan ka Bagh at Sikandra and dates from the first quarter of the seventeenth century. The exterior walls of another early seventeenth century palace at Sikandra, the Kanch Mahal, are also decorated with flasks in niches.
According to Zebrowski, such motifs may originally have had a connection with the "waters of fertility" and hence with good fortune and abundance, but it seems likely that by the seventeenth century they were appreciated more for their elegant shapes. See Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture: An Outline of its History and Development (1526-1858), 1991, p. 89, pl. 100 and p. 158 and Mark Zabrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, 1997, p. 185. Zebrowski also illustrates a wall decoration in a Deccani painting with cusped niches carved with flasks, bottles and other vessels, op cit p.194, pl. 295.
Similar though less stylised and floriated flasks arranged in niches carved in red sandstone are illustrated in Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, 1997, p. 185, pl. 269. That decoration is from the Gate Pavilion of the Suraj Bhan ka Bagh at Sikandra and dates from the first quarter of the seventeenth century. The exterior walls of another early seventeenth century palace at Sikandra, the Kanch Mahal, are also decorated with flasks in niches.
According to Zebrowski, such motifs may originally have had a connection with the "waters of fertility" and hence with good fortune and abundance, but it seems likely that by the seventeenth century they were appreciated more for their elegant shapes. See Ebba Koch, Mughal Architecture: An Outline of its History and Development (1526-1858), 1991, p. 89, pl. 100 and p. 158 and Mark Zabrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, 1997, p. 185. Zebrowski also illustrates a wall decoration in a Deccani painting with cusped niches carved with flasks, bottles and other vessels, op cit p.194, pl. 295.