Fine Indian Kutch Silver Plate Depicting Elephants

This fine round dish has an ornate, crenulated edge and a central roundel chased with three elephants drinking from a jungle pool. The roundel is surrounded by scrolling flowers and foliage, and then an outer border of meandering grape vines and grapes. The use of grapevine motifs is unusual in an item from Kutch.

The dish sits on four round, silver feet.

Kutch silvermakers such as Oomersi Mawji developed a unique style of motifs with which they decorated most of the silver items they produced. Islamic-inspired scrolling flowers and foliage is the most frequently encountered motif, but small animal, bird and human motifs also were employed. The inspiration for these intricate motifs combined with fine and complex floral and foliage patterns almost certainly derives from the local tradition of intricate wall painting employed in Kutch palaces and public buildings. Known as Kamaagar art, the style evolved among the Kamaagar community of Muslims who lived in Kamaagar Falia in Bhuj (Tyabji, 2006, p. 90). Initially, the community was known for making decorated shields, but by the early to mid 19th century, the Kamagaars had established themselves as wall painters, painting intricate, even fussy, scenes of village life, animals, hunting scenes and the like accompanied by scrolling vegetal and floral borders.

The dish here is in excellent condition.