Cutch Indian Silver Riding Flask

Highly Unusual Repoussed Silver Riding Boot Flask

This long, tapering silver flask with a bulbous screw top is chased with scrolling floral and foliage motifs typical of Cutch silverwork of the late nineteenth century. But the unusual aspect of this flask is that it is a spirit flask with a long, narrow shape to allow it to be kept in a riding boot whilst one was participating in a fox hunt, no doubt through the English countryside. It is the only Cutch riding boot flask that we have seen; certainly none appears to have been published. As such it is a whimsical and rare example of Indian silver made for the colonial market.

UK art market