AN ENGRAVED MUGHAL WINE BOWL

NORTH INDIA, 17TH CENTURY

Details

AN ENGRAVED MUGHAL WINE BOWL
NORTH INDIA, 17TH CENTURY
Engraved with animals and hunting scenes on dense foliate ground, one architectural building, probably a shrine, a register of repeating palmettes below, a wide register with calligraphic cartouches above
11 ¾in. (30cm.) diam.

Engraved

Around the rim, Qur'an II, sura al-baqara, v.255 (ayat al-kursi)
In the large cartouches around the body, a call on God to bless Muhammad and the 12 Imams
In the smaller cartouches around the body and around the base, verses from the Pand-nama of Sa'di

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Sara Plumbly

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Lot Essay

This bowl is a fine example of a particular group of Mughal wine bowls (jam or piyala) produced in North India in the 17th century. The mix of Arabic prayers in naskh with Persian poetry in nasta‘liq, the large cartouches around the body which include shia prayers and the lively hunting scenes around the body are some of the main features of this group. Our bowl was probably made in the same workshop as two very similar vessels published by Mark Zebrowski. One is in the Prince of Wales Museum and the other, which shares an almost identical figural frieze with ours in the Michael Dunn collection in New York (Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, pp.353-359, cat.581 and 582.)

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