INDIA, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

This elegant jade wine flask is of a rare but known form. One example, squatter and in rock crystal rather than jade was in the Alice and Nasli Heeramaneck Collection, New York (Stuart C. Welch, The Art of Mughal India, New York, 1976, p.170, pl.51). That example is dated to the mid-17th century. In the details of the decoration, our vessel more closely relates to a group of objects dated to the early 18th century. A nephrite box and cover in the Victoria and Albert Museum is similarly carved in relief with floral scrolls that share a sense of movement and naturalism with ours (The Indian Heritage. Court Life & Arts under Mughal Rule, exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, pp.120-21, no.368).