Lot Essay
Normally executed in a blue and green palette, the enamels of Lucknow are typified by the exuberant use of floral motifs, with flowers both real and fantastic competing for space on the surface of a vessel (Stephen Markel, '"This Blaze of Wealth and Magnificence": the Luxury Arts of Lucknow', in Stephen Markel and Tushara Bindu Gude, India's Fabled City: The Art of Courtly Lucknow, Los Angeles, 2010, p.201). The lappet bands around the base of the foot and lid of the present lot can be compared with those on a rosewater sprinkler (gulabpash) in the National Museum, New Delhi (91.12). The bowl's gently curving shape and decoration can also be compared with Lucknow-made enamelled hookah bases, like that in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M2005.95) or an example sold in these Rooms, 7 April 2011, lot 289.