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Lot Essay
Monumental in scale and extraordinarily finely engraved, this remarkable bowl is decorated with a continuous frieze of huntsmen, animals, and a dragon and simurgh emerging from a dense ground of scrolling vegetation. Above, an extensive band of elegant ta'liq contains invocations to the Twelve Imams, while a cartouche records its original owner, sahibuhu Hatim valad-e Dur 'Ali, together with the date of AH 1089⁄1678-79.
The closest comparison to our bowl is the celebrated tinned-copper example in the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Mumbai (56.61), published by Souren Melikian-Chirvani as north-west India, 1590-1600 (The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, London, 1982, p. 144 no. 488). Melikian-Chirvani described the vessel as “a key piece to the history of Mughal metalwork”. While recognising that its shape, general decorative programme and textual content followed western Iranian tradition, he emphasised the ways in which its decoration departed from Iranian conventions. Its hunting scenes deliberately combine Persian and Indian elements, notably a horseman in the costume of the Shah 'Abbas period alongside an elephant and attendant in Hindustani dress.
The relationship between the Mumbai bowl and the present example is remarkably close, particularly in the figural drawing and in the juxtaposition of monumental calligraphy with hunting scenes set against dense scrolling vegetation. Our bowl was previously sold in these Rooms, 5 October 2010, lot 37. At the time, the cataloguing recognised this close relationship, noting similarities sufficiently compelling to raise the possibility that the two bowls had been produced in the same place. The Mumbai bowl was published by Mark Zebrowski as North India, circa 1600, together with another closely related tinned-copper bowl formerly in the Michael Dunn Collection, New York (Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, pp. 353-359, nos. 581-582).
A further important comparison is an engraved tinned-copper bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2009.484), attributed to India, early 17th century. Like the present vessel, its decoration combines Persian poetry with a frieze of huntsmen, birds and animals, a format employed in both Safavid and Mughal metalwork. The attribution of the Metropolitan bowl to India, rather than specifically to the Mughal court, is significant in the context of the present bowl, whose Persianate appearance is similarly accompanied by distinctly Indian elements.
The extraordinary density of the ornament on the present bowl also finds parallels in the Deccan. Particularly striking is an inhabited arabesque drawing attributed to the Deccan, late 16th century, in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad (Zebrowski, op. cit., no. 199). Its birds and fantastic creatures inhabit a similarly profuse ground of scrolling vegetation punctuated by small circular flowerheads, whilst the simurgh provides a compelling comparison with that on the present bowl.
The Shi'a character of the inscription provides another important clue to the place of manufacture. Rather than pointing necessarily to Safavid Iran, the invocation of the Twelve Imams is entirely at home in the Persianate Shi'a culture of the 17thcentury Deccan, where Iranian artistic traditions and artists circulated alongside Indian artistic traditions. The Deccani courts were major centres of Persianate culture and Shi'ism, and Deccani metalworkers produced vessels decorated with Shi'a invocations. Particularly relevant is a copper-alloy dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1983.227), attributed to Bijapur, circa 1600, whose central inscription is a Shi'i profession of faith. A further 17th century copper-alloy vessel in the same collection (2014.689), attributed to Golconda or Bidar, bears the names of the Shi'a Imams, Qur'anic verses and the Shi'a Nadi 'Aliyan credo. These examples demonstrate that Shi'a devotional inscriptions were an established feature of Deccani metalwork rather than an exclusively Iranian phenomenon.
The strongly Persianate character of the huntsmen, particularly their headdresses and costume, need not therefore argue against an Indian origin. The Deccan was a highly interconnected Persianate environment in which Iranian artistic traditions were absorbed and transformed alongside Indian and Mughal pictorial languages. The hunting imagery of the present bowl, with its combination of Persianate figures and Indian animals and landscape, is consistent with this cultural exchange.
Taken together, the combination of Persianate calligraphy and costume, Mughal and Indian-derived hunting imagery, dense inhabited vegetation and Shi'a devotional epigraphy is particularly appropriate to the artistic environment of the Deccan. Rather than a Safavid Iranian vessel incorporating Indian elements, the present bowl is better understood as a product of the Deccan, where Persianate Shi'a culture, Iranian artistic traditions and Mughal/Indian pictorial vocabulary converged. Dated AH 1089⁄1678-79, it represents an important later example of this highly interconnected Deccani metalworking tradition.
The closest comparison to our bowl is the celebrated tinned-copper example in the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Mumbai (56.61), published by Souren Melikian-Chirvani as north-west India, 1590-1600 (The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule, London, 1982, p. 144 no. 488). Melikian-Chirvani described the vessel as “a key piece to the history of Mughal metalwork”. While recognising that its shape, general decorative programme and textual content followed western Iranian tradition, he emphasised the ways in which its decoration departed from Iranian conventions. Its hunting scenes deliberately combine Persian and Indian elements, notably a horseman in the costume of the Shah 'Abbas period alongside an elephant and attendant in Hindustani dress.
The relationship between the Mumbai bowl and the present example is remarkably close, particularly in the figural drawing and in the juxtaposition of monumental calligraphy with hunting scenes set against dense scrolling vegetation. Our bowl was previously sold in these Rooms, 5 October 2010, lot 37. At the time, the cataloguing recognised this close relationship, noting similarities sufficiently compelling to raise the possibility that the two bowls had been produced in the same place. The Mumbai bowl was published by Mark Zebrowski as North India, circa 1600, together with another closely related tinned-copper bowl formerly in the Michael Dunn Collection, New York (Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, pp. 353-359, nos. 581-582).
A further important comparison is an engraved tinned-copper bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2009.484), attributed to India, early 17th century. Like the present vessel, its decoration combines Persian poetry with a frieze of huntsmen, birds and animals, a format employed in both Safavid and Mughal metalwork. The attribution of the Metropolitan bowl to India, rather than specifically to the Mughal court, is significant in the context of the present bowl, whose Persianate appearance is similarly accompanied by distinctly Indian elements.
The extraordinary density of the ornament on the present bowl also finds parallels in the Deccan. Particularly striking is an inhabited arabesque drawing attributed to the Deccan, late 16th century, in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad (Zebrowski, op. cit., no. 199). Its birds and fantastic creatures inhabit a similarly profuse ground of scrolling vegetation punctuated by small circular flowerheads, whilst the simurgh provides a compelling comparison with that on the present bowl.
The Shi'a character of the inscription provides another important clue to the place of manufacture. Rather than pointing necessarily to Safavid Iran, the invocation of the Twelve Imams is entirely at home in the Persianate Shi'a culture of the 17thcentury Deccan, where Iranian artistic traditions and artists circulated alongside Indian artistic traditions. The Deccani courts were major centres of Persianate culture and Shi'ism, and Deccani metalworkers produced vessels decorated with Shi'a invocations. Particularly relevant is a copper-alloy dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1983.227), attributed to Bijapur, circa 1600, whose central inscription is a Shi'i profession of faith. A further 17th century copper-alloy vessel in the same collection (2014.689), attributed to Golconda or Bidar, bears the names of the Shi'a Imams, Qur'anic verses and the Shi'a Nadi 'Aliyan credo. These examples demonstrate that Shi'a devotional inscriptions were an established feature of Deccani metalwork rather than an exclusively Iranian phenomenon.
The strongly Persianate character of the huntsmen, particularly their headdresses and costume, need not therefore argue against an Indian origin. The Deccan was a highly interconnected Persianate environment in which Iranian artistic traditions were absorbed and transformed alongside Indian and Mughal pictorial languages. The hunting imagery of the present bowl, with its combination of Persianate figures and Indian animals and landscape, is consistent with this cultural exchange.
Taken together, the combination of Persianate calligraphy and costume, Mughal and Indian-derived hunting imagery, dense inhabited vegetation and Shi'a devotional epigraphy is particularly appropriate to the artistic environment of the Deccan. Rather than a Safavid Iranian vessel incorporating Indian elements, the present bowl is better understood as a product of the Deccan, where Persianate Shi'a culture, Iranian artistic traditions and Mughal/Indian pictorial vocabulary converged. Dated AH 1089⁄1678-79, it represents an important later example of this highly interconnected Deccani metalworking tradition.