MUGHAL INDIA, 18TH CENTURY

This elegant jade wine ewer is of a rare but known form. It is an example of the hardstone carvings that were popular in the Mughal period, from the reign of the Emperor Akbar. It is thought that nephrite and related hardstones were introduced to the Mughals in the 16th century when a Khotanese jade merchant ‘visited the Emperor Akbar’s court and enabled the Mughals to indulge a taste for jade already acquired by their Timurid ancestors in Central Asia’ (Joseph M. Dye III, The Arts of India, Virginia, 2001, p.408). One example, squatter and in rock crystal rather than jade, was in the Alice and Nasli Heeramaneck Collection, New York (Stuart C. Welch, The Art of Mughal India, New York, 1976, p.170, pl.51). That example is dated to the mid-17th century. In the details of the decoration, our vessel more closely relates to a group of objects dated to the early 18th century. A nephrite box and cover in the Victoria and Albert Museum is similarly carved in relief with floral scrolls that share a sense of movement and naturalism with ours (The Indian Heritage. Court Life & Arts under Mughal Rule, exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, pp.120-21, no.368).
The Mughal Empire in India left a legacy of high-quality worked jades which were also greatly admired in China. The Qianlong emperor highly appreciated the so-called 'Hindustan' jades, and in 1768, he wrote the Tianzhu wuyindu kaoe, a scholarly text on the geography of Hindustan and the derivation of its name. The area he identified was in what is today India, with the city of Agra at its centre.
Two similar examples include a jade ewer, 17th/18th century, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Exquisite Beauty - Islamic Jades, Taipei, 2007, pl.96 and a white jade wine flask, India, 18th century, which sold in these Rooms, 8 October 2015, lot 143.