Northern Indian Parcel-Gilt Silver Filigree Perfume Flask & Tray (Attardan)

This exceptional perfume container and presentation tray is of silver filigree with many of the major elements having been gilded (gold-plated) thereby providing a striking contrast between the gold and the silver. Originally, it would have been intended to hold attar of roses.

The attardan sits on three elaborate filigree feet with upturned detailing. The tray is of filigree and has a pierced, crenulated rim of 21 leafy elements. Rising from the centre is a vase-like structure, again largely of filigree and with a gilded stem, and then a basket of leaves and filigree flowers – perhaps roses. In the middle of this is a holder for the perfume flask. The flask is topped with a filigree flower and has solid, gilded sides engraved with a lattice like pattern.

This actual item is illustrated in Terlinden, C., Mughal Silver Magnificence, Antalga, 1987, p. 90, where is ascribed to the 18th century.

Terlinden comments that the piece might have been subject to extensive restoration but in fact, as a sign of the item’s quality, it is made of several pieces which screw apart. At some point, the pieces were glued together. We have had all the glue professionally removed and it is clear that the item is now in its original and cohesive form.

The Victoria & Albert Museum has parts of such an attardan, most probably by the same maker, but the tray and other components are missing and the filigree does not include any gilding.

The form of the attardan is mirrored by three examples made not from filigree but from partly gilt, solid silver in the Clive Collection at Powis Castle. These were acquired by Robert Clive (also known as Clive of India), the 1st Baron Clive and the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive first went to India in 1744, and the attardans in his collection are first mentioned in an inventory of 1774. (This further allows for an attribution of the example here to the 18th century.

The attardan is in excellent condition. Overall, this is a fine, museum-worthy item.

 

Above: Published: Terlinden, C., Mughal Silver Magnificence, Antalga, 1987, p. 90.