Large Mughal Octagonal Silver Betel Box (Pandan)

This exceptional octagonal or eight-sided pandan or betel (paan) box is of fine hammered sheet silver. It has a domed cover and is chased and engraved on all sides and over the lid with very fine Ottoman-inspired Mughal floral sprays against a ring-mat background.

Several similar boxes have appeared on the art market over the years, but this example is the largest.

Paan boxes of this form and with related decoration were produced in the second half of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century using a variety of different metalworking techniques. Zebrowski (1997, p. 56, 91) illustrates two examples in gold with enamelled floral sprays against a white ground, and another example of gilded copper flowers against a blue enamelled background.

The shallow relief against a ring-matted background found on the box here has important parallels with several other well-known but rare examples of early Indian silverwork. See for example a silver flask attributed to the mid-17th century and in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum in Hyderabad and illustrated in Zebrowski (1997, p. 38). Also, the faceting of the petals and leaves in the various panels has close parallels with other Mughal and Deccan items of silver known to date to the eighteenth century.

Overall, this is an outstanding example of early 18th century Indian silverwork of which there are few surviving examples.

This actual pandan was acquired by the previous owner at Christie’s London, ‘Arts of India’, September 24, 2003, lot 174.

 

Above: Silver pandans such as the example here are based on 17th century north Indian bronze and brass prototypes such as this example.