Colonial Indian Silver Bombay

Silver Ewer by A. Bhicajee, Co.

This small, fine ewer has been cast with a long, tapering spout that has a zoomorphic terminal shaped as a dog or dragon with a curling snout. The handle has been finely cast as a knarled tree branch over which a cobra has twisted itself, its hood flaring off the top of the handle.

It sits on a domed, ring foot engraved with acanthus leaves. The globular body is very finely chased and engraved with Hindu figures in the Madras style.

A domed, hinged lid is engraved with a leafy border and has an elegant pointy finial. The neck has an even, fine, pitted ground.

The base is stamped ‘A Bhicajees, Co / Bombay/ Silver’.

Bhicajees & Co. was a retailer and perhaps maker of colonial Indian silver in Bombay in the first part of the twentieth century. Almost certainly, the firm was owned and managed by a Bombay Parsee (or Parsi) family. Most of India’s Parsees were concentrated in Bombay and Bhicajee is a Parsee family name.

Items of colonial Indian silver with the Bhicajees name are not that common but do tend to be characterised by their fine chasing work and casting.

The example here is in excellent condition.

Dehejia, V., Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj, Mapin, 2008.

UK art market.