Mughal Lady’s Jade & Ruby Hookah Mouthpiece

This fine, Mughal hookah (huqqa) mouthpiece is of pale green jade. It has been set with tiny cabochon rubies, all in gold kundan settings, arrayed as small flower buds and heads. The gold used typically is 24-carats.

This example is unusually small, and so clearly was intended for use by a lady of the court.

The mouthpiece follows the conventional baluster form of a waisted cylinder with a pear-shaped tip. Examples of hardstone hookah mouthpieces are known. One is in the Kahilili Collection, another is in the al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait.

Typically, aristocratic Mughal men and sometimes women would carry their own hookah mouthpiece in a pocket. If calling on others, they would use the provided hookah apparatus but would use their own mouthpiece which they would attach to their host’s hookah. Mouthpieces for the wealthy thus became quite elaborate and were almost a form of jewellery suggesting their owner’s wealth and status.

A related though larger mouthpiece was in the Al Thani Collection and illustrated in Stronge (2015, p.  76). That example is attributed to the 18th century and the manufacture place suggested as either in Delhi, Lucknow or Varanasi (Benares). It was sold, with another similar example, by Christie’s New York in the ‘Maharajas and Mughal Magnificence’ sale in 2019 (see lots 69 and 70.)

The example here is in excellent condition. Smoke stains inside the mouthpiece show that this example was used.