.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
This beautifully crafted gold box with intricate openwork decoration is surmounted by peacocks which are considered auspicious birds and are a popular motif in both north and south India. The form of the peacocks lacks the sturdy sobriety of line found in northern India and is more akin to the plumper, curved bird forms associated with the Deccan and South India. For bird finials of comparable form, used on a brass lamp and a betel-leaf box, dating from the 17th-18th century in South India, see M. Zebrowski, Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, nos. 102, 104, pp.100-101.
The compartmentalised shape of our pandan box, a container for storing betel-leaf and other ingredients required for making pan, is also found in other containers. It occurs in masaladans or spice boxes; attardans, boxes for storing solid perfume; sindurdans and sumardans for vermilion and kohl along with compartments for other cosmetics. For examples of comparable silver and parcel gilt boxes from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, see C. Terlinden, Mughal Silver Magnificence (XVI-XIXth C.), Bruxelles, 1987 nos. 236-239, pp.158-159. No. 238, a spice box from Central India, has each compartment surmounted by a slender peacock and a central lotus with a finial which unscrews to release all the compartments, much like our example. There is another comparable spice box with five compartments surmounted by a hamsa (an aquatic bird), from South India dated to the 19th century, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (02654 I.S).
The compartmentalised shape of our pandan box, a container for storing betel-leaf and other ingredients required for making pan, is also found in other containers. It occurs in masaladans or spice boxes; attardans, boxes for storing solid perfume; sindurdans and sumardans for vermilion and kohl along with compartments for other cosmetics. For examples of comparable silver and parcel gilt boxes from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, see C. Terlinden, Mughal Silver Magnificence (XVI-XIXth C.), Bruxelles, 1987 nos. 236-239, pp.158-159. No. 238, a spice box from Central India, has each compartment surmounted by a slender peacock and a central lotus with a finial which unscrews to release all the compartments, much like our example. There is another comparable spice box with five compartments surmounted by a hamsa (an aquatic bird), from South India dated to the 19th century, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (02654 I.S).