Estimate

10.000 - 15.000

Session 1

11 December 2018

Hammer Price

Description

Ivory
Sliding cover
Carved decoration depicting islamic figures
Interior of the cover with hindu figure "Shiva"
Deccan sultanates, late 17th, early 18th century

6,5x25x11 cm

Category

Objects

Additional Information

Rare parallelepipedic ivory box with sliding cover on corner feet. With four carved sides decorated with floral motifs (chrysanthemums, carnations, lotus
flowers ), lobed reserves and Persian aediculas at the cover. The reserves depicting finely carved court feminine and masculine figures, seated on the floor
holding small birds, flowers or wine bottles, image of the Deccan court pleasures. Similar figures depicted at the exterior face of the cover, the feminine figures
wearing saris and the male figures wearing turban. This panels are framed by double geometric friezes with circles ending in spiral braided flowers in the
Persian taste. At the cover interior, hidden from prying eyes, a curious representation of Shiva, the destroyer god of the Hindu triad on a stepped base, a typical
devotional representation. Clearly a court piece, possibly a writing accessory – hiding in the interior a religious figure of difficult devotion in a predominantly
Islamic court – and where is visible a cultural and aesthetic symbiosis between the Persian Islamic tradition and the Hindu of South India. This symbiosis
defines not only the Mogul culture of North India, but also the Islamic Deccan courts, at the modern Maharashtra state.
Hugo Miguel Crespo, Art Historian, CH-FLUL
Literature:
HAIDAR, Navina Najat; SARDAR, Marika (eds) - "sustanates of the South.
Arts of India's Deccan Courts, 1323-1687". Nova Iorque: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011.
MICHELL, George; ZEBROWSKI, Mark - "Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999