RAJASTHAN, NORTH INDIA, 19TH/20TH CENTURY

The haath phool, also known as a ratan chur or panchangala, is a traditional part of wedding jewellery, particularly in Rajasthan. A common feature is that one of the thumb rings has on it a small round or heart-shaped mirror, as on our example. This is a tradition with a long history: in his account of his life in India, the Venetian traveller Niccolao Manucci recorded of the women of the imperial harem that 'on [their] fingers are rings and on the right thumb there is always a ring where, in place of a stone, there is mounted a little round mirror'. He says that the purpose of this mirror was so that the women could 'look at themselves, an act of which they are very fond, at any and every moment' (Oppi Untracht, Traditional Jewelry of India, London, 1997, p.264).