MUGHAL INDIA, 17TH CENTURY

This elegant carved ram’s head crutch is a fine example of the production of the Mughal court. A similar example, though of nephrite jade and with horns, is in the Al-Sabah Collection (Manuel Keene, Treasury of the World. Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals, exhibition catalogue, 2001, cat.8.14, p.99). Another, also with horns, is in a private collection and was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in their exhibition Indian Heritage. Court Life & Arts under Mughal Rule (exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, cat.359, pp.118-19). Both of these examples are catalogued as 17th century. A dagger similarly engraved with a fine ram’s head finial was sold in these Rooms, 5 October 2011, lot 356. The inventiveness and playfulness of the craftsmen at the Mughal court was boundless - there is even a rock crystal hilt in the David Collection formed as a camel head (1982, op.cit., no.407, p.128). Ram’s heads are less frequently encountered than many other animals, and when they are they normally have horns, such as those cited above. Those without horns are rarer still, and this is a well observed and finely carved example.