DECCAN OR MUGHAL INDIA, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

This elegantly decorated silver box is part of a group of boxes of similar form and comparable decoration which were manufactured in the second half of the 17th and first half of the 18th century, using a variety of different metalworking techniques. Two famous examples are executed in gold completely covered with enamelled floral sprays on a white ground, while another example has gilt-copper flowers set against a blue enamel ground (Mark Zebrowski: Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, nos.34, 35 and 80, pp.56 and 91). The shallow relief against a ring-matted ground found here is also encountered on a number of other vessels dating back to this period and even to the second half of the 16th century, notably a jug in the National Museum of Antique Art, Lisbon, which has a late 16th century Lisbon assay mark (Christiane Terlinden (ed.), Mughal Silver Magnificence, exhibition catalogue, Brussels, 1987, no.154, pp.112-3).

A very similar box was sold Christie's, New York, 24 September 2003, lot 174.