NORTH INDIA, 19TH CENTURY

The floral decoration on the sides and the rim of this case follow in the same decorative idiom as the workshops of Kutch in Gujarat. A milk jug dated to circa 1890 by the workshop of the famous silversmith Oomersee Mawjee is adorned with very similar palmettes (Vidya Dehejia, Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj, New York, 2008, no. 51, p. 144). The figural decoration with a depiction of what appears to be Krishna playing a flute in clothes made of peacock feathers (illustrated), and of a single lady holding a vina with deer, look to be more influenced by North India and Delhi in particular. For a gold huqqa base with similar repoussé floral decoration attributed to the Deccan or Western India in the al-Sabah Collection see Manuel Keene, Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals, exhibition catalogue, London, 2001, no. 3.2, p. 45. A gold repoussé flask with similar floral decoration attributed to Northern India was sold at Sotheby's, 28 April 2004, lot 160.