拍品专文
While the flywhisk is not something which appears frequently in texts of the period, it features very prominently in portraits of Indian and particularly Mughal rulers. The main figure is frequently attended by one or more flywhisk bearers. Flywhisks thus became an indicator of rank, such that, by the mid-seventeenth century, small delicate flywhisks were carried by nobles as accoutrements appropriate to their position. A number of enthronement scenes in the Padshahnama show one of the senior courtiers standing behind the Emperor holding a flywhisk in addition to the two more prominent servants, each with larger examples who tend to flank the monarch. Even Dara Shikoh, Shah Jahan's chosen successor, is shown on his own in a portrait now in the Khalili Collection, standing with a sword over the right shoulder and a flywhisk by his side.
The agate in the stem of this flywhisk has been worked to obtain the maximum effect from the banding. Designs within stones were highly prized in Mughal India, as is demonstrated by the Indian appreciation of cameos, and also a number of items which deliberately play with the different colour markings within a stone, such as a small agate finial in the al-Sabah Collection (Keene, Manuel and Kaoukji, Salam: Treasury of the World, London, 2001, no.9.2, p.119). The same technique as is seen here, but on a larger scale, of a series of transverse cut agate and other hardstone cylinders threaded on a metal core, is found in a ceremonial mace also now in the al-Sabah Collection (no.8.29, p.105).
Lord Clive originally had three very similar flywhisks. Two further examples remain at Powis Castle (Treasures from India, no.178).
The agate in the stem of this flywhisk has been worked to obtain the maximum effect from the banding. Designs within stones were highly prized in Mughal India, as is demonstrated by the Indian appreciation of cameos, and also a number of items which deliberately play with the different colour markings within a stone, such as a small agate finial in the al-Sabah Collection (Keene, Manuel and Kaoukji, Salam: Treasury of the World, London, 2001, no.9.2, p.119). The same technique as is seen here, but on a larger scale, of a series of transverse cut agate and other hardstone cylinders threaded on a metal core, is found in a ceremonial mace also now in the al-Sabah Collection (no.8.29, p.105).
Lord Clive originally had three very similar flywhisks. Two further examples remain at Powis Castle (Treasures from India, no.178).