拍品专文
Bangles with clasps moulded into fighting elephants are known as hathi-ka-kara. Though Dr. Pedro Moura Carvalho argues that the design seems to have originated in Benares, it was taken up by craftspeople across India (Pedro Moura Carvalho, Gems and Jewels of Mughal India, Oxford, 2010, p.253). Here, the design is executed using a colour palette which is typical of Jaipur in the second half of the nineteenth century: a comparison can be drawn with an enamelled dagger hilt which is part of the Khalili Collection which also features a sculpted elephant-head (Pedro Moura Carvalho, Gems and Jewels of Mughal India, Oxford, 2010, no.114, p.216). A pair of bangles of similar design to the present lot was sold by Sotheby's London, 24 October 2018, lot 178.