GOA, WESTERN INDIA, 17TH CENTURY

Two closely related caskets, one of silver, the other of parcel-gilt silver and both dated to the 17th century are at Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Hispanic Society of America (Navina Najat Haidar and Marika Sardar, Sultans of Deccan India 1500-1700. Opulence and Fantasy, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2015, cats.184 and 185, p.313). In their discussion on those caskets, the authors write of the advances made in Goa in gold and silverwork, notably in objects with gold filigree. The technique was known from the end of the 16th century. One of the most spectacular examples, now in the Graça Monastery in Lisbon, was commissioned by Viceroy Matias de Albuquerque around 1597 (Jorge Flores and Nuno Vassallo e Silva (eds.), Goa and the Great Mughal, exhibition catalogue, Lisbon, 2004, cat.49, p.94). Haidar and Sardar however suggest that the Metropolitan Museum examples, as this one, are influenced by English filigree which became popular in the 17th century (Haidar and Sardar, op.cit., p.314). A closely related filigree casket, although in gold, sold at Christie's, London, 10 July 2008, lot 101.