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Silk Panel Embroidered with Silk & Metallic Threads, Seed Pearls & Sequins after an Indian Miniature
Jaipur or Bikaner, Northern India
late 18th century
height: 64cm, width: 54cm
This embroidered silk panel shows a central raja figure attended to by two servants. The raja smokes a hookah and sits against a plump bolster with metallic
thread tassels embellished with small pearls on an embroidered mat on which also sits a tray of condiments including a water sprinkler. A dish of fruits
including an opened pomegranate and a cut melon are adjacent to the mat.
All three figures wear Rajput dress. The details shown to the costumes of each is superb. The raja's headdress is that of a Rajput ruler, and is particularly
reminiscent of that worn by the rulers of Bikaner. The headdress is sewn with small pearls. He wears multiple strands of pearls around his neck, they are
attached to his belt and two a tassel suspended from his waist.
An elaborate and very finely embroidered floral and drape border surrounds the shield in which the court scene appears. The border includes two roundels
that contain angel-like figures in metallic thread.
Textiles were used extensively in the royal courts of India. Decorative canopies, floor coverings and textile screens (qanat) were very much a feature of the
Rajput and Mughal courts. Often the embroiderers were male and attached to workshops that themselves were attached to the royal courts.
Indian floral and decorative embroideries of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are relatively common but pictorial embroideries are
relatively rare. Pictorial embroideries often are attributed to eighteenth century Jaipur. The style, composition and figural types tend to be very similar to that
sound in Indian miniatures painted in Jaipur between about 1780 and 1815. Possibly this textile panel was commissioned by a European patron or was
influenced by a European-style coat of arms, or it is a blend of Indian and European styles made for a Rajput patron or court. Overall, this is a highly unusual
textile.
References: Dye, J.M., The Arts of India: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2001; Jackson, A., & A. Jaffer, Maharaja: The Splendour of
India's Royal Courts, V&A Publishing, 2009; Patnaik, N., A Desert Kingdom: The Rajputs of Bikaner, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1990.
Inventory no.: 833
This Item is available - Ask about this item.
Silk Panel Embroidered with Silk & Metallic Threads, Seed Pearls & Sequins after an Indian Miniature
Jaipur or Bikaner, Northern India
late 18th century
height: 64cm, width: 54cm
This embroidered silk panel shows a central raja figure attended to by two servants. The raja smokes a hookah and sits against a plump bolster with metallic
thread tassels embellished with small pearls on an embroidered mat on which also sits a tray of condiments including a water sprinkler. A dish of fruits
including an opened pomegranate and a cut melon are adjacent to the mat.
All three figures wear Rajput dress. The details shown to the costumes of each is superb. The raja's headdress is that of a Rajput ruler, and is particularly
reminiscent of that worn by the rulers of Bikaner. The headdress is sewn with small pearls. He wears multiple strands of pearls around his neck, they are
attached to his belt and two a tassel suspended from his waist.
An elaborate and very finely embroidered floral and drape border surrounds the shield in which the court scene appears. The border includes two roundels
that contain angel-like figures in metallic thread.
Textiles were used extensively in the royal courts of India. Decorative canopies, floor coverings and textile screens (qanat) were very much a feature of the
Rajput and Mughal courts. Often the embroiderers were male and attached to workshops that themselves were attached to the royal courts.
Indian floral and decorative embroideries of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are relatively common but pictorial embroideries are
relatively rare. Pictorial embroideries often are attributed to eighteenth century Jaipur. The style, composition and figural types tend to be very similar to that
sound in Indian miniatures painted in Jaipur between about 1780 and 1815. Possibly this textile panel was commissioned by a European patron or was
influenced by a European-style coat of arms, or it is a blend of Indian and European styles made for a Rajput patron or court. Overall, this is a highly unusual
textile.
References: Dye, J.M., The Arts of India: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2001; Jackson, A., & A. Jaffer, Maharaja: The Splendour of
India's Royal Courts, V&A Publishing, 2009; Patnaik, N., A Desert Kingdom: The Rajputs of Bikaner, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1990.
Inventory no.: 833
This Item is available - Ask about this item.
