THE HANDLE NORTH INDIA, 1750-60; THE TAIL MODERN

Like jade, agate was used by the Mughals on dagger hilts, small pieces of jewellery, and archers’ rings (for an example of the latter, see the Victoria & Albert Collection, London, IS.59-1995). The technique of layering small sections of banded agate which is used here is more unusual, but it can also be seen on a mace in the al-Sabah collection and was intended to accentuate the stone’s banded appearance. Agate carving has a long history on the subcontinent, with archaeological evidence suggesting that chalcedonies like carnelian and agate were being worked in the Indus Valley as early as the third millennium BC (P.M. Carvalho, Gems and Jewels of Mughal India, Oxford, 2010, p. 48). It is perhaps for this reason that the mace in the al-Sabah collection was erroneously catalogued by the British official who collected it as a ‘sceptre of the ancient Sovereigns of Hindostan before the Musalman conquest’, even though it is likely to have been made in a Mughal workshop.

The possibility that the design was deliberately archaic would make sense considering the nature of the object. The association between fly whisks with power is an old one on the Indian subcontinent: immortal beings in classical Indian statuary are often depicted holding them. Both Hindu and Muslim courts drew on this ancient tradition and used fly whisks to mark royal authority. Many scenes in the Padshahnama show Mughal emperors being waited on by attendants carrying fly whisks. The 1774 inventory of the Clive Collection records ‘three pillars of sardonyx ornamented with rubies, emeralds, &c.’ (Susan Stronge, Bejewelled Treasures: The Al-Thani Collection, London, 2015, p. 83, cat no. 37). One of them was sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2004, lot 157, while the third remains in Powis Castle.