AN OCTAGONAL SILVER BOX AND COVER (PANDAN)
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AN OCTAGONAL SILVER BOX AND COVER (PANDAN)

DECCAN OR MUGHAL, CIRCA 1700

Details
AN OCTAGONAL SILVER BOX AND COVER (PANDAN)
Deccan or Mughal, circa 1700
Of hammered silver sheet forming an octagonal base with domed cover, the sides worked in relief and engraved with panels of floral sprays on a ring-matted ground, beneath a minor band of floral meander, the lid with similar panels surrounding a central octagon of floral design
6 3/8in. (16.2cm.) wide
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Boxes of this form and with comparable decoration were manufactured in the second half of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century using a variety of different metalworking techniques. Two famous examples are executed in gold completely covered with enamelled floral sprays on a white ground, while another example has gilt copper flowers set against a blue enamel ground (Mark Zebrowski: Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, nos.34, 35 and 80, pp.56 and 91). The shallow relief against a ring-matted ground found here is also encountered on a number of other vessels dating back to this period and even to the second half of the sixteenth century, notably a jug in the National Museum of Antique Art, Lisbon, which has a late 16th century Lisbon assay mark (Christiane Terlinden (ed.), Mughal Silver Magnificence, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, 1987, no.154, pp.112-3).

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