Indian Gilded, Enamelled Silver Stem Cup & Cover

This unusual stem cup is of silver and has been decorated with blue and green enamel and gilded. It has a domed foot, a rococo-style handle, and a domed cover surmounted by a crested bird finial. The manner of decoration suggests a northern Indian provenance, probably Kashmir.

The cup, foot and cover are entirely decorated with stylised poppy flower and leaf motifs. All areas of silver that have not been enamelled have been gilded. The interior of the cup and the cover are especially bright with gilding.

See Wilkinson (1999, p. 120) for a silver teapot similarly gilded and enamelled and attributed to ‘Mughal Kashmir, c. 1725’, and Terlinden (1987, p. 129) for a silver hookah base with similar motifs and decorated with green and blue enamel and attributed to ‘north-west India, early 18th century’, and page 169 for a similarly decorated and attributed water vessel.

The form of the example here is unusual. It is the only example like this that we have seen in gilded, Indian enamel work.

The cup and cover is in excellent condition.