MUGHAL INDIA, CIRCA 1700

This magnificent metal-thread brocaded silk garment is a rare survival of the Mughal weaving ateliers, and would have been worn by a member of the royal family or a courtier. The textile is decorated with gilt-metal thread interwoven with coloured silk. The tiger pattern seen here is a decorative motif found across the Islamic world, on everything from pottery, carpets to shawls and velvets. Contemporaneous Mughal paintings provide accurate visual references of the fashion of the time and the type of garments and textile designs used at the courts. A handful of royal manuscripts depicting Mughal rulers at court illustrate high ranking officials dressed in brocaded silk jamas. One example is the lavishly illustrated copy of the Padshahnama in the Royal collection (RCIN 1005025). Another is the portrait of Shah Jahan holding a musket by Payag, in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (CBL. 07B.28), illustrated here.

Within India itself, tigers are clearly associated with royalty. They are respected and frequently revered throughout the country, most notably in Bengal and Rajasthan as well as in the Deccan (see lot 84 in this catalogue for a tiger finial from the throne of Tipu Sultan). One only needs to use small stripes in a design to allude to this; these are the bubri or babri (derived from babr which is tiger in Persian) motif. A splendid jade-hilted dagger from Northern India or the Deccan with the bubri pattern created in kundan-set rubies was sold at Christie’s, New York, Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence, 19 June 2019, lot 84. The tiger stripe motif was also popular with Persian and Ottoman rulers who were fond of this design with its royal associations and its symbolic links to power. The most iconic Persian hero who is always recognised by his tiger skin outfit is Rustam, featured in illustrated Persian Shahnama manuscripts throughout the centuries.

The use of precious material such as gold and lengthy procedures involved in creating brocade textiles made them highly valuable. As a result, we come across garments, such as ours, where an older brocade has been re-used and re-fashioned into a newer, more fashionable, style of courtly attire. The shape of this robe classifies it as an angarkhi, which is a shorter form of an angarkha. An angarkha (from a Sanskrit term meaning ‘body protector’) is a type of robe characterised by an inserted panel over the chest. Angarkhis are less commonly depicted in painting than angarkhas. The Victoria and Albert Museum has two paintings from the 1760s which depict angarkhis worn by the main subject (inv. no. D.1180-1903 and IM.24-1917).

The provenance of this robe is noteworthy; it is believed to have belonged to either Henry Vansittart (1732-1770) who was the Governor of Bengal from 1759 to 1764 or his brother George Vansittart (1745-1825), who was in Bengal from 1761 to 1776. Henry was preceded by Robert Clive, (for an object with Clive provenance, see lot 71 in this catalogue). Both Henry and George collected many objects during their time in Bengal. A painting of Nadir Shah Afshar was amongst one of the noteworthy purchases made by Henry Vansittart which was later presented to the East India Company by his son Rt. Hon. Nicholas Vansittart.