Lot 143
143
AN ENAMELLED DIAMOND-SET AND PEARL TURBAN ORNAMENT (TURRA)
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AN ENAMELLED DIAMOND-SET AND PEARL TURBAN ORNAMENT (TURRA)

PROBABLY HYDERABAD, MUGHAL INDIA, 19TH CENTURY

Details
AN ENAMELLED DIAMOND-SET AND PEARL TURBAN ORNAMENT (TURRA)
PROBABLY HYDERABAD, MUGHAL INDIA, 19TH CENTURY
With an s-shaped hook decorated with enamelled roundel design and topped with a diamond-set palmette supporting a gold rosette similarly set with diamonds, each lobe of the rosette issuing a single large pearl, and the base with eight further strands of pearls from which issue smaller gold rosettes each with a central diamond
6 7/8in. (17.5cm.) high (overall)
Literature
The Indian Heritage. Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, Victoria and Albert Museum, 21 April - 22 August 1982, no.312, p.110
Exhibited
The Indian Heritage. Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, Victoria and Albert Museum, 21 April - 22 August 1982
Special notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Lot Essay

This ornament (turra) would have been worn at the side of a turban, hanging down past the ear - probably as part of a set with a sarpech mounted at the front. A similar example to that offered here, with rosette terminal and suspended pearls, is published in Thomas Holbein Hendley, Indian Jewellery, re-printed and updated by Waltraud Ganguly, Delhi, 2009, pl.3A.

For a contemporary photograph of a turra being worn by Sir Prabhu Narayan Singh Bahadur, the Maharaja of Benares (1855-1931) see Usha R Bala Kirshnan and Meera Sushil Kumar, Dance of the Peacock. Jewellery Traditions of India, Mumbai, 2010, no.423, p.312.

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