A CARVED INDIAN IVORY POWDER HORN

A number of comparable pieces to this powder horn are known, some of which can be traced in European inventories to the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. A particularly elaborate example was in the collection of Prince Elector Johann Georg II of Saxony in 1658, while one in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection is very similar to ours (illustrated in D. Alexander The Arts of War, Oxford, 1992, pl. 115, p. 182). Examples have been sold in these Rooms, 28 April 1998, lot 154; 23 April 2002, lot 115 and 31 March 2009, lot 217. The present example is of particularly fine craftsmanship with the composite collage of animals covering the entire surface of the flask reflecting the very high quality of the miniatures from whence this design ultimately derives.