Delight in Design

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Delight in Design Indian Silver for the Raj

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Vidya Dehejia

with Dipti Khera, Yuthika Sharma, Wynyard Wilkinson

Mapin Publishing

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Delight in Design Indian Silver for the Raj

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An 1883 map of India showing the administrative divisions of the country under the Raj. Throughout this book city names that prevailed during that period have been used. A large number of these have changed today. Thus, Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai), Calcutta (Kolkata), Jeypore (Jaipur), Poona (Pune), Baroda (Vadodara), Benaras (Varanasi), Trichinopoly (Tiruchirapalli), and Burma (Myanmar).

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Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

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Whose Taste? Colonial Design, International Exhibitions, and Indian Silver

8

Vidya Dehejia

‘Designs to Suit Every Taste:’ P. Orr & Sons and Swami Silverware

20

Dipti Khera

A Cache Uncovered: Workshop Drawings of Oomersee Mawjee & Sons of Kutch

38

Vidya Dehejia

‘A House of Wonder:’ Silver at the Delhi Durbar Exhibition of 1903

48

Yuthika Sharma

Testimonial Plate: Swashbuckling Silver

65

Wynyard Wilkinson

Catalog

68

Vidya Dehejia

The Calling Card and the Ritual of the Call

70

Tea and the Tea Service

82

Regional Styles of Silverware

98

Madras and Swami Silver

100

Kutch Embossed Silverware

126

Kashmir Silver: The ‘Paisley,’ and the Chinar Leaf

152

Lucknow Silver: The Jungle, and the Hunt

170

Alwar’s Brief Experiment

180

Calcutta Silver and Rural Scenes

184

Burmese Silver: The Jatakas and Ramayana

200

Bombay’s Assorted Silver Styles

212

Glossary

220

Selected Bibliography

221

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Preface & Acknowledgements

“Delight in Design” presents a never-before exhibited selection of richly decorated silverware produced by Indian craftsmen from varying parts of the British India empire during the Raj, the popular term for Crown rule of India between 1858–1947. A unique feature of the silver is the manner in which objects from different parts of the Empire exhibit totally varying decorative motifs reflecting, apparently, local and individual taste. Created initially as gifts and trophies for the British in India, these delightfully embellished tea services and wine jugs, salvers and bowls were soon thereafter available for purchase in Europe as well.

During the 19th and early 20th century, the word ‘design’ was used as a synonym for pattern, ornament, embellishment, whether it was of silverware, carpets, textiles, woodwork, or other handmade objects. It is in this sense that the word is used in “Delight in Design,” the title of this catalog, while the word ‘delight’ is intended to convey the attraction which allured viewers to become both admirers and purchasers of these objects. During the Raj, a sharp distinction was in place between much-admired design, and the forms and shapes upon which such design was applied. These handmade objects were included in the category of the ‘industrial arts,’ and British officials who wished to encourage such production attempted to steer the curriculum of art schools in India away from the ‘fine arts’ of painting and sculpture and towards the ‘industrial arts.’ The term ‘industrial arts’ has today been abandoned in favor of ‘crafts,’ as will be evident from the plethora of books dealing with Indian handmade products that are titled “The Arts and Crafts of India.” The word ‘design’ has a chequered history. By the mid-20th century, ‘design’ was used to refer to the shape, form, or contour of a work, and never to any decoration (god forbid!) that might adorn it. The Design Centre in London, for instance, showcased the latest in furniture or tableware, and was a must-visit destination for those interested in elegant living.

This volume on Indian silver accompanies an exhibition of some 170 pieces of silver largely from the Paul F. Walter collection, with a few choice objects from the collection of Julian Sands.

We are immensely grateful to these generous collectors for sharing this stunning material with us and making it available for display in the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Gallery at Columbia University. I am also deeply indebted to John Sequeira for sharing with us his rich archival material on the Kutch silver establishment of Oomersee Mawjee and Sons, and permitting the reproduction of some of the drawings. In London, we would like to express our gratitude to Susan Stronge, John Clarke, and Ann Eatwell of the Victoria & Albert Museum, and to the authorities of the British Library, for allowing us access to rare books and archival material not available elsewhere. Special thanks go to Jonathan Marsden, Deputy Surveyor of The Queen’s Works of Art, The Royal Collection, at Buckingham Palace who graciously allowed us to examine the silverware presented to Edward Albert, Prince of Wales, during his visit to India in 1875–76. In India we are especially grateful to Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar and the staff of the City Palace Museum, the Maharana Mewar Special Library, and the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation for allowing us to access a rare photographic album of P. Orr & Sons, and to reproduce select photographs for this catalog.

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In preparation for the exhibition, we held a conference at Columbia University in late 2006, titled “The Art of Exchange: Circulation of Visual Culture in Colonial India,” sponsored by the Southern Asian Institute and the Department of Art History & Archaeology. We are grateful to Susan Bean, Deepali Dewan, Arindam Dutta, Natasha Eaton, Barry Flood, Douglas Fordham, Saloni Mathur, Abigail McGowan, and Indira Peterson, who presented papers with innovative ideas that stimulated valuable discussion. We have, of course, drawn upon the scholarly works of a number of other colleagues whose individual contributions are acknowledged in the notes. I must mention our special gratitude to scholar-collector Wynyard Wilkinson for his generosity in sharing his knowledge and information with us; I thank him too for his contribution to this volume. At Columbia University, I would like to thank the staff of the Department of Art History & Archaeology, and its associated Visual Resource Center for their ready and willing cooperation. I would like to express my appreciation to Katherine Kasdorf, Dipti Khera, Risha Lee, Neeraja Poddar, Anna Seastrand, Yuthika Sharma, and Laura Weinstein for help with the initial and essential process of cataloguing the silver; special thanks go to Dipti Khera and Yuthika Sharma for the essays they have contributed to this volume. I must acknowledge the expertise of Sarah Elliston Weiner, director of Columbia University’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Gallery, and her staff, who are responsible for the elegant mounting of the exhibition. Photographer Richard Goodbody’s specialised handling of the reflective properties of silver, together with John Morgan’s expert preparation of the photographs for publication was crucial in the presentation of this material.

And finally, my thanks go to Carmen Kagal and Paulomi Shah at Mapin Publishing for their expert and elegant production of this book.

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Whose Taste?

Colonial Design, International Exhibitions, and Indian Silver Vidya Dehejia

Silverware reflecting a remarkable amalgam of taste was produced in India for a period of about 75 years, from 1865 to 1940. Indian silversmiths satisfied the demand for elegant silver tea services, bowls, wine and water ewers, beer mugs, and goblets that would normally adorn the sideboard or mantelpiece in a British Raj home, creating European forms to fulfil European requirements. In this sense, they continued a tradition of silversmithing that had been established by Europeans in the Presidency towns of Madras and Calcutta from the 1760s onwards.1 By the 1860s, however, Indian silversmiths adopted a unique manner of embellishing these objects, displaying what came to be considered an innate and ubiquitous Indian fondness for decoration. In the context of such ornamented forms, what was admired was “the admirable taste with which they [Indians] harmonise complicated patterns.”2 The shape and function of Raj silver catered to colonial taste and demand, but its exterior surfaces displayed ‘native’ decorative skills in portraying patterns and figuration that appealed to its consumers. A sharp distinction may, in fact, be made between the forms created for European use and the traditional forms of Indian silver that had been produced for centuries prior, for the princely rulers of the various courts of India. Such Indian shapes continued to be made throughout the period of the Raj and include the surahi or water vessel (Cat. No. 67), paan daan or betel leaf container, attar daan or perfume container, gulab pash or rose-water sprinkler (Cat. Nos. 55–57), spice boxes, and a variety of plates and cups, all of which are labeled ‘For Native Use’ in an 1883 list of art manufactures. The same document proceeds to list “teapots, coffee pots, milk jugs, sugar basins, vases and cups of all shapes and sizes, salt cellars, spoons, knife handles, dishes, salvers, &c,” labeling them ‘For European Use,’ explaining that such silver plate, the term used to describe these items, “is in large demand by Europeans for whom it is principally worked.”3

Kutch teapot with snake handle and elephant-head spout, ca. 1880 Private collection OPPOSITE

PAGE, BELOW LEFT:

Finial of silver

spoon depicting kuruvanji or gypsy (See Cat. No. 37) Paul Walter collection OPPOSITE

PAGE, BELOW RIGHT:

Kuruvanji

against granite column, Tirukurunkudi temple, Tamil Nadu, Nayak period, ca. 17th century

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Each region of India that created European silver plate adorned it with a recognizably local pattern. Tea services, consisting of a tray that held a teapot, milk jug, and sugar bowl, were seen everywhere, both in Britain and the colony. But in India, regardless of where exactly a tea service was made, its surfaces would be richly adorned. A silversmith from Kutch would create heavily embossed work to adorn a teapot, giving it a wonderful twisted snake as its handle, and a magnificent elephant head where its spout emerged from the pot (opposite page). This was the Kutch decorative style adapted to adorn a European object, in this case a teapot. If made in Madras or Bangalore, the decoration of the teapot would consist of images of gods being carried in procession to the accompaniment of music and dance; thus the designation of this ware as Swami (god) silver (Cat. Nos. 25–38). A beer mug, something unknown in the context of Indian culture, followed the designated European shape, but its sides were decorated in a manner never seen in Europe. If made in Calcutta, it would carry a series of rural scenes such as men and women carrying water, husking grain, or ploughing fields, against a backdrop of palm trees and village huts (right).

At the same time, if so required by a patron, a Kutch silversmith might also display his virtuosity by so accurately copying a classical statue as to create an image that seems to defy classification. With a muscled torso, a fig leaf to cover his nudity, strapped sandals on his feet, and a kid-skin flung over one shoulder, an elegant male figure gently bends his head and gazes downwards (Cat. No. 40). The copy is amazing in the way it captures the spirit of the Neapolitan original on which it is based.4 In fact, if it did not so clearly have the initials ‘O.M.’ (for Oomersee Mawjee, silversmith to His Highness, The Maharao

Calcutta beer mug featuring rural scenes,

of Kutch) and ‘Bhuj’ (the capital of Kutch) stamped on its base, as indeed do several tea services, wine

ca. 1890

ewers, and goblets, one might have wondered about the ethnic origins of its

creator.5

No doubt, this

Private collection

unconventional and unique image, so much at odds with the objects of Indian and European use created in 19th-century India, was fashioned at the express request of the Maharao of Kutch.

A highly eclectic creation is evident in a set of elegant spoons with finely worked handles and figurative finials, produced to nestle within a velvet-lined presentation case (Cat. No. 37). Incised decoration adorns both surfaces of the spoons’ bowls, and the six spoons each have deftly carved stems with an elaborate finial that replicates in miniature the striking pillar figures in Nayak-period temples. Pillars adorned in this fashion were repeated in temple after temple in South India.

They obviously attracted sufficient admiration in British India to be replicated in wood in half-size, and displayed to flank the entranceway into the main hall of the 1903 Delhi International Exhibition as a fine specimen of Indian carving.6 The figure of the kuruvanji or gypsy that adorns one 1903 wooden replica pillar is also the finial of one of the spoons of the spoon set mentioned above. It is important to examine the role of international exhibitions as a channel which, in varying ways, provided impetus and inspiration for the creation of Indian silver.

We shall also see that the display of silverware at such exhibitions, and their enthusiastic reception by sections of the British press, created a new market for the purchase of Indian silver which acquired overnight a certain desired status.

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This catalog and exhibition illustrate the wide range of silver plate produced for the Raj. Two thematic sections, one devoted to the prevalence of silver calling card cases and the second to the ubiquitous silver tea service,7 demonstrate how silver objects were dispersed throughout the subcontinent; these are followed by an examination of silver plate on the basis of varying regional forms of decoration. As early as 1894, B.H. Baden-Powell, artisanal reformer in India, remarked that, “it is always possible to tell by the style where a vessel has been made,” and he quoted the example of Kashmir silverwork with its “graceful but rather monotonous ornament, which is closely related to the forms used in shawl weaving.”8 Organized silver-work ‘factories’ were established primarily in South India and in Kutch. The best known Madras institution was the European-owned workshop of P. Orr & Sons which employed local silversmiths, while Bangalore housed, among others, the Indian-owned workshop of Krishniah Chetty & Sons and European-owned Messrs. Barton & Sons. The second center of Kutch, renowned for its silversmiths, was home to the entirely Indian workshop of Oomersee Mawjee & Sons that owed much to the patronage of the local rulers, the Maharaos. In these regions, the silversmiths had some contact with customers and, as one might expect, this encouraged them to produce their finest work. Elsewhere, merchant middlemen dealt with both the customers and the silversmiths, disallowing direct contact between the buyer and the producer of silver plate. From these areas of India, it was the names of the merchants rather than those of the silver workshops that were advertised at the various international exhibitions. All over India, and regardless of whether silver was produced in centralized workshops or on a more informal basis, several craftsmen worked on producing any one single piece; additionally, the process of decoration always commenced with punching in the background from the outside, rather than hammering out the decoration from the inside.

The finest examples of Raj silver appear to have been created between 1875 and 1920. A large number of pieces were ordered by the British stationed in India from the catalogs of local firms like P. Orr & Sons of Madras, or from workshop drawings such as those of Oomersee Mawjee of Kutch.9 Inscriptions engraved on silverware indicate that these objects were frequently gifts for christenings and weddings, trophies for winners of polo and other sporting events, and mementoes presented upon retirement from service. Even larger quantities of silver were imported into Britain, and into Europe, particularly Paris, following the high visibility achieved by Indian silver in the course of the international exhibitions of the second half of the 19th century. It appears that both Liberty & Co. of Regent Street and Proctor & Co. of Oxford Street had their own workshops in India, making Kutch-style silver items for sale in their London stores.10 Silverware imported into Britain was required to meet the sterling standard of 92.5 per cent silver, the rest being copper. Indian silver, however, was never of a single consistent standard as far as its purity was concerned.11 Items were frequently made from old silver of varying quality that was melted and refashioned. Another popular source of silver was the rupee coins minted by the East India Company which, ironically, were of 91.7 per cent purity and hence sub-sterling. Finally bullion was imported from East Africa, the Arabian Gulf, the United States, and China.12 Also, zinc was commonly added to silver in place of copper as it produced a preferred white appearance; some alloys were 87.5 per cent silver and 12.5 per cent zinc. On the other hand, Kutch silver was regularly between 96 and 98 per cent pure,

exceeding the sterling standard; this ready importability must surely have been one reason for the immense popularity of Kutch-style silver in Britain.

The import of Indian silver into Britain was initially hampered by the British system of hallmarking, which required that any imported silver had to be ‘scraped’ to confirm its sterling standard and then stamped with the ‘approved’ mark of the Goldsmiths’ Hall. The hallmark standard applied to every part of an item, including the nut or screw used to attach, say, a knob to a lid – items which the Indian silversmith considered irrelevant. British rules demanded that silverware that did not conform to this standard be broken up and destroyed. British companies like Elkington & Co. which created silver

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and silver-plated ‘copies’ of Indian silver, did good business during the years when the hallmarking system was in effect. In addition, the much admired ornate silverware from Kashmir was often imported into Britain as copperware, and then silver-plated; the result, as remarked on by Lockwood Kipling, founder and Director of the Mayo School of Art in Lahore, was that “Cashmere gold and silver plate of large size and imposing aspect which, however is only silvered or gilded copper, is often to be seen on the sideboards of retired Anglo-Indians.”13 In 1884, the hallmarking system was withdrawn for ‘handchased, inlaid, bronzed or filigree work of Oriental Pattern,’14 as long as the imported silver was of sterling standard. This was a blessing for Indian silver; the further withdrawal of import duties on such handmade products in the year 1890, greatly benefited Indian silver imports into London.

The Indian Presence at International Exhibitions15 In the mid-19th century, few Europeans had any knowledge of India or her products; in a brief span of 50 years, due in large measure to the number of international exhibitions held during the second half of the 19th century, familiarity with India soared. By 1900, vast numbers of exhibition-goers had been introduced to Indian ‘design,’ the word used at the time to designate ornament, and to her ‘industrial arts,’ or what the 20th century would later label her ‘crafts.’

The year 1851 marked the opening in London of the first international exhibition, ‘The Great Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations,’ whose success was responsible for transforming international exhibitions into the ‘fashion of the hour’16 for a period of nearly 75 years. The scale and grandeur of these exhibitions is vividly expressed by Paul Greenhalgh: Imagine an area the size of a small city centre, bustling with dozens of vast buildings set in beautiful gardens; fill the buildings with every conceivable type of commodity and activity known, in the largest possible quantities. Spare no expense. Invite all nations on earth to take part by sending objects for display and by erecting buildings of their own. After six months, raze this city to the ground and leave nothing behind save one or two permanent landmarks.17 The Great Exhibition was held in a single vast structure that enclosed 19 acres within London’s Hyde Park; fully glassed over, it was known popularly as the Crystal Palace. Thirty-four countries accepted Britain’s invitation to participate, and another thirty were comprised of nations that formed part of the British Empire. Their contributions were displayed under four categories – manufactures, machinery, raw materials, and fine arts – and these divisions became the standard for all the international exhibitions held thereafter, until 1939. The machinery halls at the exhibition drew more visitors that the fine arts halls which ‘brought status, not pleasure.’18 The Royal Society of Arts played a major role in the organization of this hugely successful exhibition which attracted 6.5 million visitors and brought in a substantial net profit of just over £ 186,000.19 Within the countries that comprised the British Empire, India was given the greatest prominence and this continued to be so for future displays; from the 30,000 square feet allotted to her at the Crystal Palace, India moved into a space of over 100,000 square feet at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886.

Emerging from this very first exhibition and holding true in future spectacles of this type was the distinction drawn between the machine-made and the handmade, the former considered ugly and the latter equated with true beauty. Indian design, created by hand and not machine, was judged highly successful in its use of color and its skillful use of pattern. India was acclaimed for her displays of a wide range of products that included carpets and textiles, silver and gold work, enameled ware, lacquer work and elaborately carved wooden furniture. Further appreciation came from William Morris and others of the arts and crafts movement in Britain, “who saw contemporary Indian artisans as embodying the artistic, ennobled labor to which they were striving.”20 A secondary issue was the distinction made between fine art (which India was not deemed worthy of possessing) and design or ornament (in which

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India’s expertise was admired). This distinction was clearly phrased in the curriculum of Britain’s Department of Science and Art, established directly after the Great Exhibition, and headed by Henry Cole.

In the introduction to the curriculum, the reader is asked to consider the difference between the rendering of a flower by an artist and by an ‘ornamentist.’ The artist represents the beauty of a flower as it appears in nature, while the ornamentist resolves the flower into its elements rather than viewing it with the overall eye of an artist. The ornamentist “…does not aim at that fictitious resemblance of nature which it is the purpose of fine art to effect… but at the identical repetition of natural forms and colours in some new material and for some new purpose.”21 Cole also started the Journal of Design with the express intention of shifting emphasis from fine art to industrial design.

The four justifications (not necessarily the same as motivations) that the organizers of the Great Exhibition put forward for hosting it became established reasons for presenting such international events in the future.22 The very first justification for these costly extravaganzas was that they promoted peace among nations. This somewhat nebulous goal allowed for varying interpretations; for the British it presumably included the preservation of status quo as far as empire was concerned. Empire brought prestige to Britain at a time when British machine-made goods were considered low in aesthetic quality; empire was beneficial to image and also to trade. The next two elements, the education of the masses and the encouragement of trade, could be seen in action right on the grounds of the exhibition; indeed, separate sales counters began to be set up at which visitors could purchase silverware, textiles, and various other goods similar to those on display in the exhibition. Greenhalgh somewhat sardonically remarks that critics of the time found “nothing wrong in seeing the Great Exhibition as a shop, nor apparently in belonging to a nation of shop-keepers.”23 The fourth justification, that of progress, was also evident at the exhibition site in the Machine Hall which displayed machinery, engineering feats, and technological innovations, all of which aroused much admiration.

Following the success of the Great Exhibition, a number of nations began making plans for future displays and these came to fruition as early as 1853 in both Dublin and New York, followed in 1855

by Paris. Major London exhibitions were held at South Kensington in 1862 and 1874, with the grandiose Colonial and Indian Exhibition being presented in 1886. In contrast to British exhibitions which were confined to a single vast building, the French introduced the idea of numerous pavilions within an expansive bounded area. Several such pavilions, sometimes ‘palaces,’ were constructed by participating nations at the successive Paris Expositions of 1878, 1889 (for which the Eiffel Tower was built), and 1900.

Exhibitions became so much the rage that Paul Greenhalgh remarks that even if one were to limit oneself to Britain’s Great Exhibitions, France’s Expositions Universelles, and America’s World’s Fairs, “the sheer numbers of exhibitions prevents an empirical completeness.”24 He gives us some startling statistics, noting that between 1866 and 1914, an event with more than 20 participating nations was held every two years.25 Commencing with the Great Exhibition, the publications that served as illustrated catalogs for these ‘spectacles of tangible fantasy’26 carried object labels close to those used to this day and in this very catalog – place of origin, time of origin, nature of the raw material, and the ‘style’ of the product.27 India herself held a number of ‘international’ exhibitions, commencing with the Bombay Metropolitan of 1854, scheduling displays to showcase objects from across India with two aims in mind.

First and foremost, they offered ideal venues at which to judge and select objects that were fine representatives of their class and kind and should be forwarded to exhibitions in London, Paris, or New York. Second was the desire to give people in various parts of India an exposure to products from other parts of the country, and thereby to stimulate production of goods in areas that were under-represented.

Following the Madras Industrial Exhibition of 1855, the Calcutta Review, for instance, enthused: “Distant provinces have been made acquainted with each other’s products.”28 Exhibitions in India brought surprising numbers of visitors; as many as 235,000 attended the opening weeks of the Jeypore (today Jaipur) exhibition in January 1883, while the Calcutta International in December 1883, attracted 1,000,000

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visitors during its four-month run.29 Several of these Indian exhibitions, as indeed those held in Europe, showcased the craftsmen, often housing them in a prominent gallery where they could display their working techniques as well as their wares.30 Several, including the Calcutta 1883 exhibition, provided the basis for local state museum collections.31 It was probably this same exhibition of 1883 that provided the impetus for the inception of a Calcutta style of silver design. The British residents of Calcutta, capital of British India, had thus far commissioned silverware of the type made ‘back home.’ With Calcutta hosting an international exhibition, it became indeed necessary for the city to be adequately represented in the silverware section. This need provided the incentive for the introduction of the rural scene motif of Calcutta.32 The 1875–1876 Visit to India of Edward Albert, the Prince of Wales An event with unforeseen repercussions on the artistic products of India, and specifically its silverwork, was the 1875–1876 visit to India of the Prince of Wales, who later ruled as Edward VII. This royal visit held greater significance for Indian crafts than for the empire. The Prince of Wales traveled extensively within India and was everywhere presented with lavish gifts, and Sir George Birdwood, India Office scholar and writer on India’s ‘industrial arts,’ and others interested in promoting the designs created by Indian craftsmen made sure the Prince was aware of the intrinsic artistic value of these gifts.

So effective were they in their campaign that, even ahead of the royal yacht’s return to England, instructions were telegraphed to make arrangements for these gifts to be placed on public view at the South Kensington Museum. The Court Journal of March 18th, 1876 reported, prior to the opening of the display, “The magnificent presents received by the Prince of Wales during his late visit to India have directed public attention to the many choice articles of native skill and workmanship displayed in the manufacture of the various works of art.”33 Three items of Swami silver from the Madras firm of P. Orr & Sons, presented as gifts by Indian maharajas, featured prominently among the Prince of Wales’ collection, drawing attention to the art of the silversmith. The Gaekwad of Baroda presented His Royal Highness with a complete tea service intended for afternoon garden parties, consisting of 12 teacups, saucers, and teaspoons, a teapot, sugar bowl with sugar tongs, milk jug, and three salvers to hold them.34 The Maharaja of Cochin presented an ornate dessert service including 12 each of dessert knives and forks, fruit spoons, teaspoons, fish knives and fish forks; while Maharaja Holkar of Indore presented a second tea service, without the cups and saucers.35 The royal gifts were next displayed at the Bethnal Green Museum in London in 1876 and 1877, at the Paris Exposition in 1878, at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, and finally at York in 1881.36 In particular, the Indian pavilion at the 1878 Paris Exposition received tremendous acclaim; besides a Diploma of Honor, the Exhibition Committee awarded it seven gold, 15 silver, and 21 bronze medals, as well as 10 honorable mentions.37 George Birdwood remarked that the cases containing the Prince of Wales’ gifts of gold and silver plate were the first objects encountered by a visitor upon entering the Indian court in the Paris Exposition.38 His list alerts us to the fact that the objects displayed had been collected by ‘Anglo-Indian government officers, Indian princes, English curators and leading importers.’39 Considering loan exhibitions of recent decades, one might say that little has changed in the character of the lenders.

The success of the Indian pavilion at Paris in 1878, and the repeated displays of the royal gifts at other venues, had a tremendous effect on the reputation and sale of Indian silverware.40 The resulting incentive for acquiring Indian silver prompted British and Scottish firms to move towards producing such wares. One such was the Birmingham firm of Elkington & Co. that had developed the process of silverplating (technically known as electro-deposition) and was a leading manufacturer of both pure silver and silver-plated wares in Britain.41 As early as the year 1872, the firm had advertised its first piece of Indian silver, a copy of a Kashmir ware mug decorated with the ‘shawl’ or paisley pattern.42 The following years saw the addition of several pieces of the Kutch style, especially after the displays of the Prince of Wales’ gifts. ‘Electro-types’ were produced in both silver and silver plate by taking molds directly from the original Indian silver objects. In addition, the firm also created their own Indian inventions in

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electroplate.43 After 1885, Elkington & Co. offered no new designs; with the direct import of silver from India following the elimination of the hallmark regulation, it no longer made monetary sense to produce copies in Britain.

In 1880, after having hosted a stall at the Paris Exposition of the previous year, Liberty of London issued a ‘Yuletide Gifts’ catalog that featured several Indian silver items, largely in the Kutch style.44 In her recent book, Saloni Mathur points out that Liberty & Co. “not only introduced new products, materials, and ideas but also invented them.”45 The Umritza Cashmere shawl that received rave reviews was one such English-made Indian imitation. The Liberty catalogue of 1881 explains that they sought “an Indian material which should combine the extreme softness of touch with the durability of the tough, but harshfeeling fabrics of European manufacture,” and finally invented Umritza Cashmere, “after many difficulties and a series of experiments.”46 In the realm of silverware, however, Liberty & Co. left well alone and set up a workshop in Bombay where craftsmen from Kutch produced the silver offered for sale in their store.

The sphere of diplomatic gifting, the frequent and repeated hosting of international exhibitions, and the realm of commercial enterprise, together proved to have considerable ramifications.

Intertwined as they were, they resulted in the acclaim and appreciation of Indian objects, and a consequent significant demand for Indian silver.

Commissioners, ‘Exhibition-wallahs,’ and the Creation of Taste To oversee the exhibitions displaying the various products of empire, including silver, and the new museums being set up to house select objects purchased at the conclusion of each exhibition,47 British officials in India set up a special branch of the Department of Revenue and Agriculture. The role played by economics in planning and mounting ‘international’ exhibitions within India is revealed by the Department of Revenue being chosen for this purpose. In Britain, the Department of Science and Art, established soon after the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, became the key agent in organizing the many international exhibitions held in the second half of the 19th century. This department also purchased goods from the first ‘Great Exhibition’ for the South Kensington Museum which ultimately became today’s Victoria & Albert Museum.48 In his book that focuses on Britain’s Department of Science and Art, Arindam Dutta has drawn attention to the wide scope of influence of that department on institutions across Britain’s colonies, whether at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, or at a small provincial museum in Kabul.49 Commissioners of the British Department of Science and Art, and the corresponding officials of the Indian Department of Revenue and Agriculture, who were popularly referred to as the ‘exhibitionwallahs,’ undertook the key role of securing objects for display. In fact, they seem to have combined the roles of today’s curators with that of museum directors and, in addition, held their full-time government positions. Edward C. Buck and George Watt were two among several influential Englishmen who served as commissioners; Buck was responsible for the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London, and Watt for the 1903 Delhi Durbar exhibition.50 At the other end of the spectrum were a group of Indian assistants without whom the British officials could not have functioned. Two of these active individuals were T.N. Mukharji from Calcutta, officially appointed Exhibition Assistant for the Department of Revenue and Agriculture, and B.A. Gupte from Bombay who, in his capacity as assistant to Lockwood Kipling, Director of the Mayo School of Art in Lahore, collected objects for exhibitions held both in India and overseas during the 1880s.51 The role of the Commissioners and their Indian assistants in vetting and selecting objects, and in creating taste, is a topic that calls for a comprehensive study. These individuals, both British and Indian, were responsible for constructing a cultural story through which the British experienced India; it is also a story through which Indians learned about themselves. But let us not view such a cultural construction as an exclusively colonial maneuver. As Greenhalgh points out, “Britain too had to create itself at these exhibitions;” the English village, Olde Globe Theatre, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Walter Raleigh were all part of this newly created image.52

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The task of securing objects for exhibitions led British officials to express concern over what they saw as the impending disappearance of traditional Indian design. While George Birdwood celebrated the purely Indian gold and silver items, largely arms and armor, presented to the Prince of Wales on his 1875–1876 official visit to India, he bemoaned those that he considered “the most glaring illustrations of the debasement of Hindu and Indian art under European influences.” One such was the elaborate P. Orr & Sons tea service, presented by the Gaekwad of Baroda, and proudly proclaimed by the Madras Mail of 1875 as a magnificent achievement.53 Birdwood, however, wrote scathingly that, “Nothing could be worse than the tea tray and tea pot, and sugar and milk bowls, in this Madras tea service. The cups and saucers are unobjectionable perhaps, while the spoons, which are Hindu in character, are decidedly pleasing.”54 Thomas Hendley, Residency surgeon in Jaipur, who played a significant role in organizing the 1883 Jaipur exhibition, spoke at an 1894 Lahore conference, lamenting the craftsmen’s tendency to introduce “some objectionable European features, good enough in its proper place, but wholly unsuitable and barbarous when applied to Oriental art.”55 And yet, everything depended on these ‘native’ craftsmen; scholar Deepali Dewan has written effectively on the contradictions involved in seeing them as both a ‘source of revival’ and a ‘source of corruption.’56 This paradoxical view of the Indian craftsmen was so entrenched that when Henry Y.D. Scott, as exhibition commission secretary, requested a set of traditional jewelry from India for the 1872 London exhibition, he actually had photographs prepared in London of what he required!57 As Abigail McGowan points out, however, from her focused study of crafts in Western India, “their ideas of what constituted ‘traditional’ design was itself new, forged first at international exhibitions.”58 Throughout this discourse of misgivings about the Indian craftsman, no consistent voice or policy was formulated regarding the form or decoration of silverware produced in India. Dismay was sometimes expressed at the poor quality of the European models available to Indian craftsmen. BadenPowell commented on the “badly shaped teapots, jugs, and bottles, vases (with snakes twisted around them), and other such goods” available to Kutch workers to copy and then adorn with their typical decorative motifs. He spoke disparagingly of the forms of domestic silver in England as “about as feeble and commonplace as anything can be.”59 Apart from a few voices like those of George Birdwood, who wanted only Indian forms to be created, most British officials required Indian objects to look ‘Indian’ by carrying Indian decorative motifs, but simultaneously called for their shapes and forms to conform to a Westernized way of life. The insistence on Indian-ness was restricted to ornament. The irrelevance of Indian shapes and form is evidenced by the drawings of Indian patterns, divorced from the objects that bore them, reproduced in two influential design works of the 19th century. Both Digby Wyatt’s The Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century (1851–1853) and Owen Jones’ Grammar of Ornament (1856) carry such drawings isolated from their context.60 The intricate floral and geometric designs were admired in and of themselves, with the implication that they could be effectively transferred on to a European context and serve as patterns for fabrics, wallpaper, and the like. It is somewhat ironical that a parallel strategy is apparent in the pages of the Journal of Indian Art and Industry, published in India between 1884 and 1917, with the express view of encouraging Indian ‘arts.’61

‘A Habit of Mind’ The essays in this catalog explore the various factors involved in the fashioning and ornamentation of silverware, and its subsequent display, promotion, and sale. “‘Designs to Suit Every Taste’: P. Orr and Sons and Swami Silverware,” highlights the anomalous position held in the late 19th century by Swami silver, that featured Hindu iconographic themes, and was produced by native craftsmen for the European firm of P. Orr & Sons in Madras. While some were captivated by the ‘heathen deities’ of Swami silver, others criticized the work as hybrid and ‘debased.’ Yet, four maharajas commissioned gifts from this Madras firm to present to the Prince of Wales during his visit to India in 1875–1876. Soon thereafter, P. Orr & Sons acquired the prestigious right to the title “Manufacturing

Jewellers, Gold and Silversmiths to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales.” In her essay, Dipti Khera

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examines the sources that the craftsmen might have used for their work, studies the catalogs put out by the company in terms of a successful advertising campaign, and considers a photographic album commissioned by the firm to mark their 50th anniversary in the year 1899 which highlights the firm’s multifarious workshops and departments, with a focus on machinery and tools. She evaluates the criticisms leveled against Swami silver in the context of the academic debates that attempted to define Indian design, and shows how P. Orr & Sons circumvented the pendulum of taste by setting Swami silver and its silversmiths “within the modernizing topos of design, manufacture, and economic imperative.”

The next essay is my preliminary exploration of a hitherto unknown group of about 300 drawings recently acquired by the collectors Elizabeth and John Sequeira. The drawings come from the workshops of the famous Kutch silversmiths, Oomersee Mawjee & Sons, both from their original location in the capital of Bhuj and from their later workshop in the town of Baroda whose local ruler, the Gaekwad, served as patron for one of the sons. Half of the drawings partake of the nature of the catalog published

by P. Orr & Sons of Madras in that they are intended for consumers ordering silverware; these contain notations in both English and Gujarati on a variety of issues including the range of sizes in which any single item was available. From details given on the making charge per tola (less than half an ounce) weight of silver for various designs, we learn that the Kutch style, as well as Swami-style silverware made in Kutch, was the most highly valued, while Chinese patterns were much cheaper; additionally the making charges for work in gold was roughly twice that of silverware. The other half of the drawings were intended entirely for internal workshop circulation, and consist of repeated details of various types including sketches of animals, drawings of figure types including copies of figure groupings from Raja Ravi Varma lithographs, as well as an entire range of entwined Gothic-style initials to serve as models for the silver craftsmiths to engrave on their ware. This fascinating archive raises a number of intriguing questions including that of the transmission of patterns across region and media.

In “House of Wonder: Silver at the Delhi Durbar Exhibition of 1903,” Yuthika Sharma highlights the role of Viceroy Lord Curzon who wished to showcase the finest in Indian art, “all that was rare, characteristic and beautiful,” portraying himself as the savior of Indian crafts in the face of the damaging trade policies of the Raj. She speaks of the travels of George Watt and Percy Brown to select objects that were truly Indian and devoid of foreign influence. The exhibition, housed in a set of magnificent though temporary buildings adorned with cupolas, jaali screens, and arches, attracted large numbers of visitors who saw the structure as an ajaib-ghar or House of Wonder. Silverware was displayed on either side of the central transepts so as to be highly visible; in addition, an Artisans’ Gallery featured craftsmen at work, and allowed them to sell their wares to visitors. Her essay concludes by tracing the transition from exhibition to museum, since the objects on display were offered for sale to the provincial museums after the government had officially acquired those pieces that it wished to add to the Indian Museum in Calcutta to make its collection more truly representative.

In the final essay, “Testimonial Plate: Swashbuckling Silver,” Wynyard Wilkinson, author of no fewer than four books on British and Indian silver,62 introduces the reader to the flip-side of the coin in showcasing the British Orientalist response to India. His essay features silver centerpieces or epergnes, produced by British firms in Britain and inscribed for presentation to British officers in India. Created by silversmiths who had little knowledge of the world beyond their workshops, and certainly no knowledge of India, these fanciful centerpieces featured camels, palm trees, and turbaned ‘Indians.’ Made both in silver and electroplate, these hybrid, idealized pieces conjure up an exotic world of the imagination.

The aim of this essay has been to present the milieu in which to both appreciate and evaluate the dazzling silverware reproduced in this catalog. However, since both Orientalism and Imperialism play a part in such an evaluation, it might be useful to conclude with a few thoughts on these topics. It is 30 years since Edward Said transformed the meaning of the word Orientalism from a sympathetic study of

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the Orient into a term laden with negative connotations. While generations of scholars will be grateful for the much needed corrective he provided, it is appropriate today to reconsider the degree of the applicability of his ideas to areas of study outside its original field of literary criticism. I find myself in sympathy with John MacKenzie, in his Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts, when he speaks of some post-Saidian analyses that take on ‘disturbingly ahistorical forms.’ In a discussion of recent writings relating to 19th century painting, he points out that, “when techniques of cultural cross-referencing are used, twentieth century slights and insults often become nineteenth century compliments and sympathies.”63 A contemporary parallel might be to remember that ‘political correctness’ is a late 20th century concept, unknown even in the mid-20th century; a remark to a woman on her dress, which

today might be seen as condescending or insulting, was in its time intended as a compliment.

An issue worthy of comment is what is seen as a colonial obsession with taxonomies. Scholars have critiqued the Peoples of India project, for instance, and the subsequent series of photographs of Andaman islanders, posed standing beside a measuring scale,64 as if to emphasize their classification as objects of anthropological interest. Are these colonial strategies anything more than what Bernard Cohn terms an ‘enumerative modality’?65 One might point to pre-modern India’s preoccupation with the classification of her own peoples as seen in texts such as the Kamasutra or Rasamanjari. One Indologist rightly speaks of how all peoples and phases of experience in pre-modern India were “catalogued and categorized, sub-categorized and sub sub-categorized compulsively and obsessively,” suggesting that “to name is to know.”66 With this perspective, it might be useful to re-evaluate British taxonomic responses to the information overload of the 19th century.67 If I am being intentionally provocative, it is to ask for space for that ‘habit of mind’ spoken of

by John MacKenzie, in his series introduction to Studies in Imperialism, where he states: “Imperialism was more than a set of economic, political, and military phenomena. It was a habit of mind, a dominant idea in an era of European world supremacy which had widespread intellectual, cultural, and technical ramifications.”68 Growing up as a ‘missy baba’ in a British India household, several aspects of cultural, even intellectual imperialism were, for me, little more than a ‘habit of mind,’ a way of life. I lived what one might today call a bifurcated existence, but which for me was normal everyday living. Tamil vegetarian lunches, cooked by a Tamil Brahmin cook, were eaten by hand off a thali; dinner, on the other hand, eaten with appropriate cutlery on a well-set table, consisted of hot soup, followed by roast chicken or lamb, followed by a steamed pudding with custard, all cooked by a Muslim cook whose kitchen was in an outhouse. And, of course, there was afternoon tea. I must stress that neither at that point of time, nor in the years thereafter, did such a life seem contradictory to me. Being part of the British India

Bombay tea service in the Calcutta style, 1940

Private collection

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government service, my family chose to live a partially British way of life. Among my parents’ wedding gifts was a silver tea service from Bombay adorned with Calcutta-style rural scenes (overleaf); some years later, my mother opted for the simple elegance of a Queen Anne silver tea service as a wedding gift for her sister. These choices had nothing to do with the politics of empire. For my mother was among those who had joined the demonstrations in the streets of Bombay, standing outside shops like Army & Navy Stores, and stopping people from entering with the slogan ‘Boycott British Goods.’ An appreciation of Shakespeare and Queen Anne silver was not in contradiction with a love of Sanskrit or admiration for Kanchipuram silk saris, and both could go hand in hand with nationalistic fervor. For many Indians in official positions, and for some of rank and status, a degree of colonial acculturation was an accepted part of life. It is certainly true, as Nicholas Dirks remarks, that “it has not been sufficiently recognized that colonialism was itself a cultural project of control,”69 yet an insistence on a pre-planned colonial intention of control in all spheres would be an overstatement. In the case of silverware, the introduction of the issue of the craftsman’s agency, which is highlighted in ongoing studies on the role of both master craftsmen and those who form a loose cooperative,70 allows for a more nuanced reading to surface.

1

2

3

4 5

6

7

Wynyard R.T. Wilkinson, A History of Hallmarks, Indian Colonial Silver. European Silversmiths in India 1790–1860 and their Marks (London: Argent Press, 1973). Also Wynyard R.T. Wilkinson, The Makers of Indian Colonial Silver: A Register of European Goldsmiths, Silversmiths, Jewellers, Watchmakers and Clockmakers in India and Their Marks, 1760–1860 (London: W.R.T. Wilkinson, 1987).

John Forbes Royle, Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue, 1851: p. 936, as quoted in Abigail McGowan, “‘All That Is Rare, Characteristic or Beautiful’– Design and the Defense of Tradition in Colonial India 1851–1903,” Journal of Material Culture 10, no. 3 (2005): p. 266.

List of Art Manufactures, Exclusive of Textiles, of the Bombay Presidency (Bombay: Govt. Central Press, 1885), pp. 4–5.

See “Kutch Embossed Silverware,” pp. 126–151.

See Tirthankar Roy, “Out of Tradition: Master Artists and Economic Change in Colonial India,” Journal of Asian and African Studies 66, no. 4 (2007): pp. 963–991, for a discussion on individual masters-cum-innovators. He also speaks of how “designers in a whole range of crafts approached Indian buyers with Western themes and Western buyers with ‘oriental’ themes,” p. 988.

Sir George Watt, Indian Art at Delhi, 1903: Being the Official Catalogue of the Delhi Exhibition, 1902–1903 (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India, 1903), p. 451, and Plate No. 63, “Copy in Wood of Stone Pillar in Madura Temple.” Watt informs us that they were made under the supervision of the Madura Technical School.

As late as the 1970s, the gift presented to us by Indian Telephone Industries, on the occasion of their 75th anniversary, was a silver-plated tea service embellished with their logo.

8

9

10

11

12

13

14 15

16

B.H. Baden-Powell, “Cutch Silver Work (Western India),” The Journal of Indian Art and Industry V, no. 45 (1894): p. 60 A large group of such drawings are in the collection of John Sequeira. (See Vidya Dehejia, “A Cache Uncovered: Workshop Drawings of Oomersee Mawjee of Kutch,” pp. 38–47).

For examples, see “British Indian Section – Paris Universal Exhibition, 1889,” The Journal of Indian Art 28 (1889): p. 11. Among the vendors at the Paris exhibition, it lists: Procter & Co, 428 Oxford Street which has ‘Kutch silver plate from their own workshops in Bombay.’

I have drawn on Wynyard W.T. Wilkinson, Indian Silver 1858–1949: Silver from the Indian Sub-Continent and Burma Made by Local Craftsmen in Western Forms (London: W.R.T. Wilkinson, 1999), p. 2, for much information regarding silver and its sources.

Edward Maclagan, Monograph on the Gold and Silver Works of the Punjab, 1888–89 (Lahore Civil and Military Gazette Press, contractors to the Punjab Govt., 1890). We are told that as much as Rs. 8000 worth of Chinese silver was imported each day via Bombay, generally as slabs valued at Rs. 3000 apiece.

J.L. Kipling, “The Brass and Copper Ware of the Punjab and Cashmere,” Journal of Indian Art 1: p. 8.

The Revenue Act 1884 (47 & 48 Vict.c.62) section 4 as quoted in Wilkinson, Indian Silver, p. 7.

I have drawn heavily on two splendid volumes on the subject of international exhibitions: Paul Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions and World’s Fairs, 1851–1939 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988); and Peter H. Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display: English, Indian, and Australian Exhibitions from the Crystal Palace to the Great War (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).

Patrick Geddess, Industrial Exhibitions and

Modern Progress (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1887), p. 8, as quoted in Hoffenberg, An Empire

on Display, p. 1.

17 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, p. 1.

18 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas. p. 198.

19 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, Chapter 2, “Funding, Politics and Society.”

20 Abigail McGowan, Material Changes: Crafts and the Culture of the Economy in Western India, 1851–1922, typescript of forthcoming manuscript, p. 7 21 Arindam Dutta, The Bureaucracy of Beauty : Design in the Age of Its Global Reproducibility (New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 104, quoting from Department of Science and Art, The Introduction to the Drawing Book of the School of Design, Published in the Years 1842–43, under the direction of W. Dyce (London: Chapman and Hall, 1854), pp. xvi–xviii.

22 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, pp. 16–25, consolidates into four categories the analysis of critic ‘Helix’ who wrote in 1850 on the aims of the then forthcoming Crystal Palace exhibition.

23 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, p. 23 24 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, p. 2. See also Appendix A in Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display: pp. 279–280. Given below are some of the major exhibitions held in just England and India to give some idea of the frequency and geographical coverage of such events: Great Exhibition (Crystal Palace): 1851 Bombay Metropolitan: 1854 Madras Industrial: 1855 London International Exhibition (South Kensington): 1862 Calcutta Agricultural: 1864 Punjab Art and Industry: 1864 Nagpore Arts, Manufactures, and Produce: 1865 London International: 1871–74 Punjab Art and Industry: 1881

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28 29 30

31 32 33

34 35 36 37 38

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Calcutta International: 1883–84 Jeypore Art and Industrial: 1883 Colonial and Indian (South Kensington): 1886 Empire of India: 1895 Delhi Durbar and Indian Art: 1903 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, p. 15.

Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display, p. xv.

Carol A. Breckenridge, “The Aesthetics and Politics of Colonial Collecting: India at World Fairs,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 31, no. 2 (1989): p. 206.

Calcutta Review, 26, 1856: p. 283(?), as quoted in Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display, p. 4 Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display, p. 2 See Yuthika Sharma, “A House of Wonder: Silver at the Delhi Durbar Exhibition of 1903,” pp. 48–64, for a discussion on the ‘Artificers’ Gallery’ at the 1903 Delhi exhibition.

Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display, p. 13 See “Calcutta Silver and Rural Scenes,” pp. 184–189.

As reported in “Extracts From the Press,” in P. Orr & Sons catalog, Manufacturing Jewellers, Gold and Silversmiths, to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, by Special Appointment (Swami Catalogue), 1877.

P. Orr & Sons, Swami Catalogue, first line drawing.

P. Orr & Sons, Swami Catalogue, p. 1.

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, p. 5.

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, p. 5.

George C.M. Birdwood, Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878: Handbook to the British Section. Presentation Edition (London and Paris: Offices of the Royal Commission, 1878), p. 59.

Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display, p. 83. See also Birdwood, Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878.

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, p. 6.

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, pp. 172–179.

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, p. 211.

Personal information from Wynyard Wilkinson.

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, Pl. 8, p. 10; Pl. 12, p. 12.

45 Saloni Mathur, Chapter 1, “The Indian Village in Victorian Space. The Department Store and the Cult of the Craftsman,” pp. 27–51 in Saloni Mathur, India by Design. Colonial History and Cultural Display ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).

46 Liberty & Co. Catalogue for 1881, microfiche no.

3, National Art Library, London.

47 McGowan, Material Changes, p. 18, points out that the international exhibitions, Indian exhibitions, and Indian museums all shared common classificatory strategies as also common personnel.

48 Dutta, The Bureaucracy of Beauty, p. 22.

49 Dutta, The Bureaucracy of Beauty, p. 3.

50 See Yuthika Sharma, “A House of Wonder: Silver at the Delhi Durbar Exhibition of 1903,” pp. 48–64, for an in-depth discussion on George Watt.

51 Hoffenberg, An Empire on Display, pp. 49–62.

52 Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, p. 125.

53 P. Orr & Sons, Swami Catalogue, “Extracts From the Press.”

54 Birdwood, Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, p. 60.

55 Dutta, The Bureaucracy of Beauty, note 52, p. 334. He quotes from Proceedings of the Art Conference Held in the Technical Institute at Lahore on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th January 1894, p. 12.

56 Deepali Dewan, “The Body at Work: Colonial Art Education and the Figure of the ‘Native Craftsman,’” in Confronting the Body: The Politics of Physicality in Colonial and PostColonial India, edited by James H. Mills and Satadru Sen (London: Anthem Press, 2004), pp. 118–34.

57 McGowan, “‘All that is Rare, Beautiful or Characteristic,’” p. 278.

58 McGowan, “‘All that is Rare, Beautiful or Characteristic,’” p. 263.

59 Baden-Powell, “Cutch Silver Work (Western

India),” p. 62.

60 McGowan, Material Changes, p. 12.

61 Deepali Dewan, “Scripting South Asia’s Visual Past: The Journal of Indian Art and Industry and the Production of Knowledge in the Late Nineteenth Century,” in Imperial Co-Histories: National Identities and the British and Colonial Press, edited by Julie F. Codell, Madison (N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 2003), pp. 29–44, especially 36f.

62 Wilkinson, Indian Colonial Silver; The Makers of Indian Colonial Silver; Indian Silver.

63 John M. Mackenzie, Orientalism: History, Theory, and the Arts (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), p. xxi.

64 Vidya Dehejia, India through the Lens: Photography, 1840–1911 (Munich; London: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in association with Mapin and Prestel, 2000), Plate 42 on p. 115.

65 Bernard S. Cohn, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India (Princeton, N.J.; Chichester: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 8 66 Lee Siegel, Fires of Love; Waters of Peace.

Passion and Renunciation in Indian Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983), p. 34.

67 Mackenzie, Orientalism, p. xiv. Of the Victorian and Edwardian periods he comments: “Given the immense quantity of information pouring in upon them, it is perhaps not surprising that they were obsessed with classification, attempting through codification to control and understand this welter of material.”

68 John Mackenzie, general editor of Studies in Imperialism. See for instance his Introduction to Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas, p. ix.

69 Nicholas B. Dirks, “Foreword,” in Cohn, Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge, p. ix.

70 Tirthankar Roy, “Out of Tradition,” pp. 963–91.

Also McGowan, Material Changes.

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‘Designs to Suit Every Taste’ P. Orr & Sons and Swami Silverware Dipti Khera

We have recently been afforded the opportunity of inspecting several cases of silver dessert knives, forks and spoons manufactured by the well-known firm of P. Orr and Sons, Madras. The articles for most part are exceedingly massive and the workmanship is elaborate and artistic, nearly every piece of silver carries in design, and wrought to represent a heathen deity, — hence the name “Swami” work, by which this class of goods is known.

The London Courier of January 30th, 18751 Except in Madras or Trichinopoly, where the debased Anglo-Indian “Swami” work is made, native jewellery is not manufactured wholesale, nor, as a rule, is the industry confined to special localities as it is in Europe. The Indian goldsmith… is never taxed to discover some “latest novelty” which may take the fancy of a capricious public. To borrow the language of European pattern books and advertisements, the native jeweller is not required (happily for Indian art) to supply “designs to suit every taste,” simply because all patterns are prescribed by immemorial custom.

E.B. Havell, Superintendent, School of Arts, Madras2 Swami silver plate, with its focus on intricately chased ‘heathen deities,’ held a strangely anomalous position in India and abroad during the late 19th century. While it captivated some viewers and consumers, it also aroused strong criticism from others who considered it a sign of yielding to the inclination of producing ‘designs to suit every taste.’ Consisting predominantly of Hindu iconography grafted onto the surface of silverware (and jewelry) intended for European use, Swami silver was produced in southern India by ‘native’ jewelers and silversmiths. However, most of these silversmiths were employed in the workshops of a few European firms in colonial Madras, the primary center for the manufacture of Swami silver. European observers – the press, British administrators, art educators, and connoisseurs – focused their attention on the Hindu iconography of Swami silverware, either applauding the silversmith’s skillful workmanship or bemoaning his creation of ‘debased’ and hybrid works. Such contradictory perceptions about this silverware must be understood within the context of late 19th century debates on what constituted ‘traditional’ Indian design and craftsmanship.3 Additionally, it should be noted that there was disagreement on the relative merits and demerits of Swami jewelry as against Swami silverware. Because of the religious aesthetic apparent in its emphasis on Hindu iconography, the design of Swami silver was classified as ‘traditional,’ and most critics considered its application on jewelry to be highly successful. But when craftsmen applied the same Swami designs to silver plate, featuring these on tea sets, dessert services, claret jugs, water pitchers, platters, and goblets, they were criticized for adopting ‘foreign styles,’ by which was meant non-Indian shapes and forms.

The divergent views on Swami silver seen in the London Courier and E.B. Havell’s critique were captured contemporaneously in two dissimilar types of sources, which this essay will consider. First, it will focus on the sales catalogs, brochures, and photographic albums produced from the 1870s to the 1890s

by P. Orr & Sons, which provide an insight into the production of Swami silverware in a multifaceted

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commercial establishment. This Madras firm acquired its reputation when four Indian maharajas turned to them for the ceremonial gifts they would present to the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, during his visit to India in 1875–1876. The catalogs and albums that P. Orr & Sons produced may be viewed as remarkable advertising documents aimed at establishing the firm commercially, and creating a platform for the production and consumption of Swami silverware in India and Britain. The second set of documents consists of critical commentaries on the decorative arts by British administrators, educators, and connoisseurs, featured in reports by schools of art and industry, and in art journals. Swami silver’s critical perception within writings on art education and art industries in Madras allows us to trace British anxiety over the changing skills of the Indian craftsmen, the academic debates surrounding the production of authentic ‘Indian’ design, and the accompanying crisis in taste.

P. Orr and Sons: Manufacturing Jewellers, Gold and Silversmiths to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales Among other Presentations to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, during his Indian tour, the following were our manufacture: PRESENTED IN BOMBAY BY HIS HIGHNESS THE GAEKWAR OF BARODA THE COMPLETE SWAMI TEA SERVICE _________________________________ PRESENTED IN MADRAS BY HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJAH OF COCHIN, K.C.S.I., THE SWAMI DESSERT SERVICE _________________________________ PRESENTED AT INDORE BY HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJAH HOLKAR, G.C.S.I., THE SWAMI TEA SERVICE _________________________________ PRESENTED BY THE CITIZENS OF MADRAS THE SWAMI GOLD AND IVORY CASKET __________________________________ PRESENTED BY THE RESIDENTS OF THE NEILGHERRY HILLS THE OOTACAMUND ALBUM & BUFFALOE HORN ADDRESS CASKET4 ____________________________________ P. Orr & Sons reproduced the above note in multiple brochures and sales catalogs, identifying themselves as the makers of the Swami silver gifted by India’s major princely states to the Prince of Wales. Prince Albert Edward’s visit to India during the winter months of 1875–1876 was the first of its kind by a member of the British royal family, and was commented on by the British press, such as the report in London’s Courier quoted earlier. One month before the Gaekwad of Baroda presented the Prince of Wales with a complete Swami tea service produced by P. Orr & Sons, the Madras Mail proclaimed its creation an “achievement in Southern Indian Silversmith’s art.”5 The position of P. Orr & Sons was further secured on April 22, 1876, when it received the prestigious right to use the appellation “Manufacturing Jewellers, Gold and Silversmiths to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, By Special Appointment.”6 By the end of the 19th century, P. Orr & Sons had emerged as the prime makers of Swami silver, employing more than 600 native workmen who manufactured an eclectic range of articles.7 Silver objects embossed with the maker’s marks ‘Orr’ or ‘ P. Orr & Sons’ had become a feature of Madras’s Swami silver production since the 1860s, and the firm had already received a certificate of merit at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873.8 While catalogs and photographic albums published by P. Orr & Sons suggest that the firm was established in 1849,9 its early history was marked by multiple partnerships.10

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Peter Orr’s son, Robert Orr, who joined the firm in 1861, was instrumental in the revision of laws related to hallmarking and importing of silverware from India to Great Britain in 1884.11 The firm operated in a market where many rival silversmiths stocked Swami silver produced in different towns of southern India.12 By the 1850s, Swami objects such as breakfast services, claret jugs, muffineers, and jewelry became a part of the ‘present fashion’ in a market that presented a conglomeration of different kinds of objects to its consumers. In this context of commercial establishments vying for custom in Madras, the commission of Swami silver gifts for the Prince of Wales’s visit in 1875–1876 was a major stepping-stone for the firm of P. Orr & Sons.

Upon his arrival in Bombay on November 8, 1875, the Prince was greeted by multiple ceremonial receptions at which a number of the princes of India presented him with lavish gifts that represented the finest of the arts and crafts of India. This ceremonial spectacle anticipated the more elaborate ritual arenas for the display of British authority, which were articulated in the Imperial Assemblage of 1877, and the Imperial Durbars of 1903 and 1911.13 J. Drew Gay, Special Correspondent of London’s Daily Telegraph, writing a contemporaneous account of this visit commented that while the variety of presents from “daggers, Cutchee guns, tea-services, rhinoceros-hide shields, swords, lances, glass, necklaces, anklets, bracelets, shawls, carpets, ancient guns, suits of armour, jewels, and cups,” would fill a large museum admirably, “they were almost as diversified as the selection the Prince’s advisers made and almost as useless.”14 The presents exchanged during this visit were indeed embedded within gifting practices, as signifiers of imperial diplomacy and allegiance after 1858.

Nevertheless, the exchanged gifts were employed in setting standards for the ‘best’ in handicrafts and industrial art in the British-Indian empire, thereby acquiring a symbolic value beyond their ceremonial significance.15 In their subsequent incarnation as markers of British taste for Indian handmade objects, this emblematic collection of the Prince of Wales’ gifts was absorbed into extraordinary exhibitionary spectacles, such as at London’s Bethnal Green Museum in 1876 and 1877, the Paris Exposition Universalle in 1878, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and finally at York in 1881.16 The Indian Court of the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878 had a large-scale display of over 12,000 objects and the first objects that a visitor encountered were the gold and silver plate.17 In the handbook to this exhibition titled, “Master Hand Crafts of India,” George C.M. Birdwood appreciated the finely incised shawl pattern on silver plate from Kashmir. However, he wrote derisively on a tea service created by P. Orr & Sons that was on display among the Prince of Wales’ gifts.

Nothing could be worse than the tea tray and tea pot, and sugar and milk bowls, in this Madras tea service. The cups and saucers are unobjectionable perhaps, while the spoons, which are Hindu in character, are decidedly pleasing.18 He saw the Swami tea service from Madras as the “monstrous product of the attempt to combine Indian with European designs in decorative arts.” Therefore, while Swami work in jewelry represented the ‘purest Hindu style’ in the exhibited traditional Indian arts, Birdwood objected specifically to the combination of European form with native ornament in Swami silver plate, despising also the ‘great and growing evil’ of mechanical processes or forms adopted from Europe.19 Birdwood was categorical in applauding the ‘Indian handicraft’ from the ‘hand of a cunning workman,’ and grappled with the impossibility of describing and classifying Indian handicrafts exclusively as products of art, industry, or manufacturing.20 His views on the introduction of mechanical processes, the combination of forms, and the copying of patterns as the causes of the decline of Indian art-crafts, formed the framework within which the production of Swami work was debated in academic and commercial circles.21

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Swami Silver’s Hindu Pantheon An important document published through the direct or indirect support of P. Orr & Sons is a small booklet titled, Hindoo Mythology Popularly Treated: Being an Epitomized Description Of The Various Heathen Deities Illustrated On The Silver Swami Tea Service, by His Highness Gaekwar of Baroda. Measuring 7 x 8 inches in size, the booklet is addressed to the Prince of Wales as a memento of his visit to India.

Its author Fred Emery elaborates upon its purpose: Since the manufacture of the Swami Tea Service by P. Orr and Sons, in execution of the order of H.H. Gaekwar of Baroda; and subsequently the Madras Reception Committee’s Casket; intended as mementos of your Royal Highness’ visit to India; it has occurred to me that a brief history of the various subjects illustrated thereon might not be altogether unacceptable to your Royal Highness. … I venture to hope that the few popular particulars here collected may impart some slight information regarding the varied subjects of Hindoo Mythology represented on the articles referred to, which, in the absence of some kind of information, – to those unacquainted with the usages and religions of the Hindoos, could scarcely be regarded otherwise than a collection of the most grotesque and imaginary characters.22 Emery’s efforts to make Swami silver plate acceptable to the taste of patrons abroad indicates his awareness of prevalent European perceptions of Hindu iconography in which sculpted Hindu ‘gods’ were viewed as ‘monsters.’23 As colonial scholarship began to explore connections between Hindu religion and Indian art, illustrated books such as Edward Moor’s Hindu Pantheon (1810) became classical works of reference. Its encyclopedic scope as a guide to Hindu mythology and iconography was widely acknowledged by archaeologists, antiquarians, administrators, and travelers to India, almost immediately after it was published. Moor’s pantheon was used multiple times over the years to correctly identify Hindu imagery in relation to Indian arts and crafts.24 Moor viewed Indian myths and religion as a way to arrive at the correct symbolic interpretation of Indian sculpture, and disassociate it from former descriptions of being archaic, primitive, and distorted; he stressed the fact that Hindu mythology was an integral part of the themes expressed in miniature paintings, bronze images, and stone sculptures. Moor commissioned Haughton, an artist from the Royal Academy, to prepare ‘portraits’ of Hindu deities from his collection of paintings, bronzes, and sketches; some 2,000 engravings of Hindu icons were reproduced in 105 copperplates alongside Moor’s narrative.25 Emery’s booklet, quoted above, presents us with the first theoretical overlay of Moor’s narrative on Swami silver, for the purpose of explaining its unique design. Emery utilized Moor to rescue Swami silverware’s figural decorations from being described as grotesque.26 Based on Moor’s pantheon, he summarized features of 88 Hindu deities including their incarnations, several frequently crafted in Swami work. Thus, Emery sought to present these ‘hybrid’ objects of Swami silver plate as layered with a deeper meaning rooted in Hindu art and religion; their aesthetic value and meaning had to be learnt in order to be appreciated.

Designing Swami Work The continually increasing demand for these effective manufactures from all parts of India, from England, Australia and America, has induced us to issue this enlarged illustrated Catalogue … We keep a large stock of Swami Jewellery and also of Silver Tea and Dessert Services, Spoons, &c., and can generally dispatch orders by return post, but for particular patterns, a delay of a few days may unavoidably occur.27 P. Orr & Sons Catalogue, 1877

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Emery’s booklet, that included press clippings and a list of Swami objects and jewelry, was indeed a smart marketing step that displayed an awareness of its varied audiences.28 P. Orr & Sons took this effort a step further, acknowledging drawings as the recognizable media within pattern books for the ‘exchange of aesthetic information’ on luxury goods and decorative objects in a global market.29 The firm published multiple copies of their own catalog in 1877, aimed at providing a complete visual picture of their Swami products.30 A wide variety of merchandise, each identified by a standard number,31 was represented in line drawings on 30 plates, stamped at the bottom with the words, “Manufacturing by P. Orr and Sons, Madras.” Grouped together in the first part of the catalog were drawings of jewelry, from necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pendants, hair pins, and rings, to special accessories such as ladies’ woven silver belts, and silver Swami medallions for velvet or leather belts. The plates that followed featured extensive tea services, beer mugs, children’s mugs, children’s bowl and spoon, napkin rings, muffineers, salt cellars, breakfast carltons, wine goblets, card cases, claret jugs, tankards, ink stands, and varied sets of spoons, knives and forks.32 Dominant among the designs were Hindu gods, in particular Vishnu and his ten incarnations, Shiva, Brahma, Ganesha, and the goddesses Lakshmi and Durga.

The engravings from the original copper plates of Moor’s 1810 Hindu Pantheon were compiled in a separate volume and re-published by Rev. Allen Page Moor in 1861.33 It has been proposed that this particular edition of plates was an ‘inspiration,’ a reference manual of sorts, that P. Orr & Sons used to construct their reputed Swami catalogs.34 Several engravings in the Hindu Pantheon were based on modern zinc casts that were designed ‘under the direction of learned Pandits,’ or drawn from pictures that were ‘highly finished and elaborately colored paintings.’ Engravings, like the first three avatars of Vishnu, were frontal views taken from modern zinc casts;35 they were simply drawn with minimal iconographic references, suggesting the difficulty faced by the artists in making ‘accurate copies’ of complex threedimensional sculptures and casts (left). By comparison, engravings made from paintings appear to be detailed tracings, portraying the figures in three-quarters pose, and set in a distinctive spatial composition Above: Labeled as “From zinc casts after

(below left). Apart from commenting on the inability of Indian artists to draw accurately from sculptures

designs by Wilkins. The first three Avatars

or bronzes, Moor did not specifically express his views on Indian art or the visual sources he drew upon.

of Vishnu; the Matsyavatara, the

When we compare the engravings from Moor’s pantheon to the plates in the Swami Catalogue, it is

Kurmavatara, and the Varahavatara: or

difficult to perceive direct relationships between the two. While the firm might have seen Moor’s Hindu

the Fish-Tortoise, and Boar-incarnations”

Pantheon as buttressing the narrative of Swami silver as an authentic, regional aesthetic with pan-Indian

Plate 48 from Edward Moor’s Hindoo

symbolic signification, the catalog did not necessarily exhibit a continuity or extension of Moor’s

Pantheon (1810)

enterprise by using its engravings. Even so, it is interesting to consider the correlation between the line drawings in these two sets of plates since each utilized the ‘Hindu pantheon’ as its thematic focus.

The objects presented in the Swami Catalogue may be classified on the basis of their ‘native ornamentation’ into two broad categories, the first of Hindu iconography and the second of castes and occupations. In this context, it is worth noting that from the 1760s, artists from Tanjore and Trichinopoly started making Company Paintings to cater to British taste. Several sets of drawings and scrolls feature Hindu deities, with an emphasis on sharp outlines, and the addition of English labels identifying each.36 They also produced entire portfolios depicting the representations of Indian castes and occupations. These Company Paintings form an important visual archive in assessing the silversmiths’ sources of inspiration.

Silver plate illustrating Hindu iconography is exemplified by an extensive tea service depicted on the opening plate of the P. Orr & Sons catalog. Following the listing of the presentations to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and placed before the introductory text, the opening plate is a drawing of the complete

Above (detail): “From a highly finished and elaborately colored native painting.

Swami tea service, for afternoon garden parties, presented by His Highness the Gaekwad of Baroda to the Prince of Wales in 1875–1876 (opposite page, left).37 The tea service consists of 12 teacups, saucers,

Mahadeva and Parvati.”

and teaspoons, a teapot, sugar bowl with tongs, a creamer, and three salvers, showcased in a folding box.

Plate 17 from Edward Moor’s Hindoo

The perspective view was drafted carefully to show the elaborate construction of the hinged box,

Pantheon (1810)

alongside the Swami decoration on all the pieces. This first plate encapsulates the sumptuousness of the

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gift and, through intricate line drawings, reveals a dense overall ‘pattern’ of Swamis on the surface of the

Above left: Drawing of a complete Swami

pieces, thus highlighting the complexity of such silverware. The drawings on two of the salvers clearly

tea service labeled “Presented to His Royal

represent the ten incarnations of Vishnu, incised in a manner similar to that seen on an oval tray that is part of the five-piece tea service featured in this catalog (Cat. No. 26).38 Similarly, the hot water pot, teapot, milk jug, and sugar bowl, part of this same tea service, engraved with Vishnu and his avatars, as

Highness The Prince of Wales.” Note the similarity in design of the form and Swami work consisting of incarnations of Vishnu of the salvers with the salver, part of the

well as other deities seated within temple niches and participating in temple processions, bears a striking

tea service, presented in this exhibition

similarity in shape and form to another design presented in the Swami Catalogue (above).39

(Cat. No. 26).

Introductory Plate of the P. Orr & Sons

The second category of themes referenced in Swami objects, that of ‘caste and occupations,’ is often featured in combination with ethnographic genre scenes and botanical representations. Many of these motifs, such as the water-bearer, tree-climber, and a man and woman working outside their huts, are found incised on the sets of Swami cutlery. The forms of spoons, forks, and knives seem to have presented an opportunity to the silversmith to combine motifs from all of the above categories. The cast

catalog (1877) Above right: Drawing showing design labeled “Teapot no. 300.” Note the similarity in design of the form and Swami work with that of the tea service presented in this

handles with scrolling vines and intertwined serpents, together with standing deities on the finials

exhibition (Cat. No. 26).

(labeled by their English names), were combined with genre scenes of village life or depictions of

Plate no. 13 of the P.Orr & Sons catalog

different castes and occupations. The complete dessert service of 92 pieces in this exhibition (Cat. No. 27)

(1877)

presents the most elaborate Swami silver example of the variation in patterning and design of the forms of the pieces, as well as their surface ornamentation40 (see overleaf).

The classic assimilation of the anthropological thematic in the Swami style is best seen in the jewelry, in particular in the design of ‘Caste Bracelet, no. 3.’41 The P. Orr & Sons catalog describes the theme thus: “illustration of Snake Charmers, Barbers, Toddy-drawers and Bearers, Water Carriers, Lapidaries… these Bracelets resemble both in style and appearance the Swami Bracelets, and were originally designed, and are manufactured solely by us, to meet the religious prejudices of those who object to the native ‘Swamis’ as a method of personal ornamentation.” The caste bracelet referenced an early moment in British attempts to understand India’s social history in visual terms, and pointed to the continued efforts

by P. Orr & Sons to resolve any possible contentious reception of Swami silver. Perhaps for the same reasons, Birdwood, commenting on a dessert service of similarly ornamented knives, forks, and spoons presented to the Prince of Wales, appreciated its elegant thin design and workmanship, and apparently saw ‘no incongruity’ in the ‘application of native ornamentation to European forms.’42 P. Orr & Sons defined the ‘design’ of Swami work by emphasizing its regional connection to southern India.

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A Cache Uncovered: Workshop Drawings of Oomersee Mawjee & Sons of Kutch Vidya Dehejia

A stray drawing or two, carrying the stamp of the reputed silver workshop of Oomersee Mawjee and Sons of Kutch has surfaced from time to time, alerting scholars to the possible existence of a stash of drawings that might shed light on workshop practices. An exciting new find, in the form of a group of some 300 hitherto unknown drawings in the possession of collectors Elizabeth and John Sequeira, does just that. The drawings provide customers with images of an entire range of available items, from tea services, claret jugs, and salvers for European use to paan daans or betel boxes, attar daans or perfume containers, and rose-water sprinklers for Indian taste. Almost every page carries notations in either English or Gujarati, which provide a wide range of fascinating information. On the one hand we are given the price per tola (less than half an ounce) weight of silver for producing individual objects, as well as the varying sizes and weights in which each is available. On the other hand, we see an intriguing instruction, from either a customer or the workshop head, pencilled along the lid of a teapot. It reads, “Cover this portion with work down to edge of lid & don’t leave it plain” (Fig. No. 1). We know that drawings, pattern books, and catalogs played a dual role on the Indian crafts scene, the one of instruction and the other of marketing; this collection clearly partakes of the character of both these categories. Roughly half the drawings seem intended to serve as patterns from which customers could place orders, while the rest, consisting of repeated studies of motifs adorning the silverware, appear intended exclusively for the silversmiths themselves. The drawings come from the Oomersee workshops, both in Bhuj, the capital of Kutch, and from the neighboring princely state of Baroda, where one of Oomersee’s sons established a workshop.1 They probably date from soon after 1860, when Oomersee Mawjee commenced his career as a silversmith, all the way into the 1930s. Only four of the 300 drawings carry dates, and these include the years 1899, 1900, and 1904, while a letter acknowledging the shipment of an order is dated 1932.

A few words on the status of drawings and pattern books will help put this new archive in context. Drawing was considered the cornerstone of instruction by every one of the art schools established to promote art industries during the third quarter of the 19th century, whether in Bombay or Madras, Lucknow or Calcutta. It was deemed to be a key element in educating ‘native’ craftsmen to produce repeatable patterns and to grasp the value of geometry, thereby providing them with a degree of mastery over the principles of design.2 One instance of pattern books playing the role of instruction is provided by the craft of carpet-weaving, where designs were copied from a collection of 250-year-old Deccani carpets. These paper drawings were given for replication to the inmates of the Yerawada jail in Poona, who soon became expert carpet weavers; the same patterns were then distributed to other carpet manufacturers.3 Drawings could obviously serve as a valuable marketing tool. For instance, to secure and coordinate orders placed with the Ahmedabad Wood Carving Company, Lockwood de Forest, artist, designer, and the company’s American director, and his local partner Mugganbhai Hutheesingh, collected FIGURE 1, opposite page, above left: ‘Cutch

woodwork drawings from Jaipur and other places, compiling them into ‘pattern books.’4 In a similar vein,

Lotah Shape set’

we have seen from the previous essay that the Madras firm of P. Orr & Sons used their drawings,

FIGURE 2, opposite page, above right:

transformed into printed material, as catalogs from which customers could place orders.5

Globular tea service

One half of the current portfolio of drawings consists of full-size images of objects that the FIGURE 3, opposite page, below:

workshops of Oomersee Mawjee & Sons could produce for sale. These are all pencil drawings on thin

Two bachelor teapots

paper which appears to have been produced in rolls, and carries the watermark of Howard and Jones,

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London, imprinted on the sheets at regular intervals, some eight inches apart. Large drawings were created by pasting sheets together lengthwise to achieve the necessary size; a few drawings were produced on cloth, later mounted on thick white paper. Almost all of these catalog-style drawings have either the inked stamp of the workshop on their reverse, or the signed name in either pencil or ink while, occasionally, the drawings carry both stamp and signature. Such a ‘signature’ is merely the name of the workshop, and might read ‘Oomersee M. & Sons. Sonar. Bhuj. Kutch;’ in the case of Baroda, a series read ‘Harilal P. Oomersee. Gold & Silversmiths, Chowkhandy, Baroda.’ The body of the silverware in these drawings carries the signature pattern of the Kutch silversmiths in the form of “sinuous vines that coil and wind in infinite, undulating, swirling patterns.”6 Frequently inserted into the thick scrolling foliage are exquisitely rendered figures of individual animals and birds, as well as animated depictions of fighting animals.

The archive of drawings reveals the immense variety of silverware available from the workshops in both Bhuj and Baroda. Tea services, for instance, could be ordered in ‘Kutch lota’ shape, in a straight-sided tapering form, in globular form, shaped as ridged bamboo, or with a fluted effect. Spouts could be an elephant’s head and trunk, a mythical aquatic makara, an open-mouthed lion head, or a more conventional shape; handles could be serpents or lizards, and knobs could be shaped as elephants, scorpions, and serpents (Fig. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ). If a customer in Bhuj was interested in a tea service adorned in the Swami style, it was not necessary for him to go to Madras, or even to request a catalog FIGURE 4, below left: Bamboo-shaped tea service

from P. Orr & Sons of Madras; Oomersee Mawjee’s workshop could readily oblige. The workshop drawings include a tea service shaped in the ‘Kutch lota’ style, and described as a ‘Cutch Swamy work Teaset.’ It carries circular medallions featuring Skanda on his peacock, Durga on her lion that tramples a

FIGURE 5, below right: Fluted tea service

demon, and Matsya, the fish avatar of Vishnu (Fig. No. 6). The drawings offer each featured item in a

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FIGURE 6: ‘Cutch Swamy work Teaset’

FIGURE 7: Chinese-style tea service

range of sizes; for instance, many of the teapots could be ordered in sizes ranging from 3 pints to 1/2 pint; small ‘bachelor’ sets were available from 1 pint down to 1/2 pint. The drawings carry the prices

of each, which reflect only the ‘making’ charge per tola weight of silver; invariably the tola weight of silver required for each size is noted, and several drawings warn the customer that the silver itself is extra by adding the words: ‘Silver at market rate.’ The Swami tea service noted above was apparently highly prized workmanship; it was offered at the level of the best silverwork from the Oomersee workshop at Rupee 1 and 14 annas ‘making’ charges per tola weight of silver.7 The inclusion in the workshop drawings of a China-style tea service is quite instructive (Fig. No. 7).

In a manner that paralleled the taste that developed for Raj silver, Europeans also acquired a liking and a demand for Chinese-style silverware, which was met both by Chinese silversmiths working in China and

by European silversmiths themselves.8 Of relevance here is the fact that between 1810 and 1850, large

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FIGURE 8: Kutch work mirrors

FIGURE 9, far right: Mirrors in the Calcutta rural style FIGURE 10, right: Mirror with Ganesha in Swami style

quantities of silverware from China were imported into Bombay, where ‘China silver’ was in vogue. In fact, Wilkinson suggests that one of the reasons Bombay did not develop its own style was the ready availability of imports from China.9 It is in this context that a drawing for a China-style silver tea service from the Oomersee Mawjee workshops is of interest. The shape of the service is quite distinct from any other produced by Oomersee Mawjee’s workshop, as is the delicate and restrained style of decoration with a seated Chinaman forming the knob. Clearly, the Bhuj workshop felt totally capable of reproducing the ware that was popular in Bombay, particularly among the wealthy Parsi community. The work, with

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a making charge of 12 annas per tola weight of silver, is priced lower than the best of Kutch scrolling work, or Kutch Swami-style ware, both priced at Rupee 1 and 14 annas per tola. Perhaps the pricing strategy was based on the fact that the Oomersee workshop needed to be competitive with the China imports which were apparently relatively inexpensive.

The corpus of drawings suggests that another popular item was a silver toilet tray, with an ebony mirror and hairbrush covered with open-work silver mounts. Several drawings exist for such items, displaying them covered with the typical Kutch scrolling motif interspersed with animals and birds (Fig. No. 8). But also included in the drawings are mirrors adorned with palm trees and huts in the Calcutta rural style (Fig. No. 9), as well as those incorporating Swami work. One such, in Swami style, with animals along the upper and lower part of the oval framework for the mirror, features seated Ganesha at its center, holding a bowl piled with round laddoo sweetmeats (Fig. No. 10). Written in a diagonal along its lower left edge are the words: “I think this beautiful. Please make one for me as soon as possible. C.A.” In a diagonal along the opposite edge is the comment: “Make Mrs Baume one like this. Same size. A.S. Baume.” The drawing is labeled ‘Swamy work at Rs 1.14 a Tola,’ confirming that Swami-style workmanship was priced at the level of the finest Kutch work.

A splendid quatrefoil salver, with tightly scrolled foliage amid which nestle a series of animals, carries the following notation within its plain circular center: “here can be placed plain for inscriptions or

FIGURE 11: Quatrefoil salver

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FIGURE 12: ‘Arabian shape Claret Jug’

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a fighting of Elephant & tigers.” The salver, of the size drawn on the sheet is priced at Rupees 105, and the list of prices noted on the sheet range from Rupees 44 for the smallest, measuring 9 x 7 inches, to Rupees 290 for the largest, at 15 x 11 1/2 inches (Fig. No. 11). A drawing of a large oval salver informs us that at its drawn size of 22 x 15 1/2 inches, it would cost Rupees 270, but that with added handles, it would be available for Rupees 310. An exquisite claret jug, intricately worked with the Kutch scrolling motif, a seated squirrel as its knob, and two serpents winding around each other to form the handle, is described as an ‘Arabian shape Claret Jug’ (Fig. No. 12) Added notations inform us that it is available in the size drawn for Rupees 135, that it could be produced for Rupees 100 if only 9 inches high; it is further noted: “Can be made large for any sum in proportion.”

The second category of drawings in this archive consists of meticulously detailed studies of animals, birds, and a range of iconographic themes, with multiple images drawn on any single sheet.

These I am labeling ‘Scraps,’ following the phraseology of watercolorist Edward Lear who, during his India travels between 1873 and 1875, covered single sheets of paper with equally meticulous studies of the people of India, its flora and fauna, and its animals, as a preliminary to producing a large

FIGURE 13: ‘Scraps’ with animal and

watercolor.10 The Oomersee Mawjee ‘Scraps,’ mostly pencilled drawings, but interspersed with those in

bird studies

ink, are drawn on both the Howard and Jones paper from London, and on a thicker paper without a watermark. Additionally, they rarely carry either the workshop’s stamp or signature, which were presumably considered redundant on drawings intended for internal circulation. In one instance, three pages, one devoted to bird studies, a second to running animals, and a third to animal fights – all themes popularly featured on Kutch silverware – have been mounted onto a single large sheet of paper (Fig. No. 13).

Another carries several studies of an elephant overcoming a lion, where the artist played with positioning the elephant’s body as seen from slightly different angles (Cat. No. 39, see p. 128); this too was a repeated, popular theme on Oomersee silverware.

A fascinating page of ‘Scraps’ carries drawings from Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings, though presumably copied from his lithographic prints (Fig. No. 14, overleaf, also see pp. 114–115). Two of the themes, ‘Arjuna and Subhadra,’ and ‘Vishvamitra and Menaka,’ are featured in Swami silverware, the first from Poona and the second from Madras, and are discussed in the Madras section of this catalogue;11 thus far, no drawings of the theme have emerged from Madras. On the other hand, while the Kutch origin of these drawings is confirmed by the Gujarati notation above the ‘Arjuna and Subhadra’ one, no Kutch silverware featuring these themes has yet emerged.

A third noteworthy page portrays a number of jungle scenes, and a hunting scene, both highly favored by Lucknow silversmiths. The first of the drawings on this page clearly reveal that it is intended for a piece of silverware by positioning an empty shield to carry initials between the two trees that frame the scene.

It features a bare-chested man with a spear in one hand, attempting to ward off a lion that has one paw placed on his thigh (Fig. No. 15, overleaf); the exact scene is featured on a large hunting bowl from Lucknow included in this book (Cat. No. 79).

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FIGURE 14: ‘Scrap’ featuring Raja Ravi Varma scenes

FIGURE 15: ‘Scrap’ with Lucknow hunting and animal scenes

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One final example must suffice here to give an idea of this fascinating archive.

Several pieces of silverware from Kutch carry shields to display the initials of its owners, and these are invariably inscribed in an intricate, entwined Gothic script. Two pages of ‘Scraps,’ pasted on both faces of a thick piece of white paper, are devoted to the starting initial M, with a range of possible letters to follow, arranged alphabetically as in ‘M.P.V.,’ ‘M.M.S.,’ ‘M.M.V.’ The page indicates the meticulous preparation of the silver workshops that left little to chance, providing the silver engraver untutored in English with models that he could copy (Fig. No. 16).

It is evident from notations on the drawings themselves that both individuals and retail outlets utilized them to place orders for silverware. We have noted earlier that individuals like ‘C.A.’ and ‘A.S. Baume,’ who wished to possess silver-worked mirrors, left their instructions on the very drawing itself. In the same category is a page featuring two milk jugs, with the words “This one” and the name “Major Schneider” written above one of them. Also of this type is a letter with the stamp of the Gold Mohur Lodge, written by a member of the household of the Raja of Saugor, which requests two silver snuff boxes.

In this sense, the workshop itself acted as a retailer. On the other hand, it seems likely that a large proportion of the workshop’s silverware was sold through a variety of retail outlets in cities like Bombay. A drawing, dated 1899, that features cigarette boxes, carries the notation: “Prices marked after deducted commissions,” and was clearly part of a set of drawings presented to retailers. Similarly, a letter in the archive, addressed to Oomersee Mawjee in Baroda, and dated 1932, comes from ‘Svadeshi (A Ladies Store)’ in Bombay; it acknowledges the receipt of one parcel of silverware and regrets the workshop’s delay in sending the rest of the order.

This collection of full-size drawings, ‘Scraps,’ and a few letters, originating from several generations of the Oomersee Mawjee workshops, in both Bhuj and Baroda, constitute a fascinating

FIGURE 16: ’Scrap’ carrying Gothic style initials on both sides

glimpse into the production and sale of silver plate just before and after the turn of the 20th century.

They constitute a partial archive, put together by dealers through the vagaries of the chance survival of what are, after all, fragile drawings. Yet they pose major issues regarding the craftsmen’s individuality or lack thereof, the transmission of patterns across region and media, and the fluidity of terms such as regional and traditional.

1.

2.

3.

I am grateful to Elizabeth and John Sequeira for sharing this material with me and for permitting me to include reproductions of several of the images, as also to show them in the Silver Exhibition itself.

Arindam Dutta, The Bureaucracy of Beauty.

Design in the Age of Its Global Reproducability (New York, London: Routledge, 2007), especially chapter 3, “‘Tardy Imaginations, Torpid Capacities, Tottering Thought’: Drawing at the Origin.”

Abigail McGowan, “‘All That Is Rare, Characteristic or Beautiful’ – Design and the Defense of Tradition in Colonial India 1851-1903,” Journal of Material Culture 10, no. 3 (2005): pp. 263–287. See also her chapter 3, “Developing Traditions: Preservationist Design

4.

5.

6.

7.

and the Independent Artisan,” in grateful to Elizabeth and John Sequeira for sharing this material with me and for permitting me to include reproductions of several of the images, as also to show them in the Silver Exhibition itself.

McGowan, “Developing Traditions,” pp. 21, 37–38.

Dipti Khera, “’Designs to Suit Every Taste”: P. Orr and Sons and Swami Silver,” pp. 20–37.

Wynyard R.T. Wilkinson and Mary-Louise Hawkins, “Kutchi Silver: A Meeting of East and West,” in The Arts of Kutch, edited by Christopher London (Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2000), p. 137.

Yuthika Sharma, “‘A House of Wonder’: Silver at the Delhi Durbar Exhibition of 1903,”

pp. 48–64. quotes a much lower price of Rupees 1 and 2 annas for Kashmiri silver.

8. Wynyard R.T. Wilkinson, The Makers of Indian Colonial Silver: A Register of European Goldsmiths, Silversmiths, Jewellers, Watchmakers and Clockmakers in India and Their Marks, 1760-1860 (London: W. R.T. Wilkinson, 1987), p. xv.

9. Wilkinson, The Makers of Indian Colonial Silver, p. xvi.

10. Vidya Dehejia, Impossible Picturesqueness.

Edward Lear’s Indian Watercolors, 1873–1875 (Ahmedabad: Mapin Publications, 1989), p. xiii and Fig. 56 on p. 85.

11. Vidya Dehejia,” Madras and Swami Silver,” pp. 100–126, Cat. No. 30.

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Catalog

All objects are from the Paul Walter collection, unless otherwise specified. In some cases it has not been possible to provide full visual details of the object on view—for instance, the reverse of a calling card. Nevertheless it is described in the accompanying text to enable the reader to obtain a total picture of the object in question. In all specifications H denotes the vertical measurement of an object. Tea service specifications represent the height of teapot, milk jug and sugar bowl respectively.

The drawings on pages 112, 115, 128, 130, 144, 148 are from the Kutch workshop of Oomersee Mawjee and come from the Elizabeth and John Sequeira collection; those on page 133, 135, from the same Kutch workshop, are from the Paul Walter collection; the drawing on page 111 is from the P. Orr & Sons Swami catalog; and the one on page 182 is from Thomas Hendley, Memorials of the Jeypore Exhibition 1883 (1884).

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Calling Cards and the Ritual of the Call

In every sphere of social life, formality and decorum

bachelors on their own, while unmarried women were

were the hallmark of the Raj. It was customary to ‘dress’ for

accompanied by their local hostess. Strict rules that varied from

dinner, and for men this implied a dinner jacket, stiffly starched

one region to another governed the card or cards to be left,

shirt, and bow tie even when the temperature was warm and the

indicating that one had called. In Bombay Presidency, when a

humidity high. Formal bands played at functions as ordinary as

government service couple called upon a superior officer and his

tea parties if they were hosted by the wife of an important

wife, the new officer would leave two cards, one to indicate he

government official. Dinner parties with elaborate menus, and

had called upon his superior and the second to indicate his

seating arrangements governed not only by seniority but also by

respects to the superior’s lady. The newcomer wife, on the other

the strict protocol of British India, were regular events. The ‘call’

hand, was to leave only a single card to denote her respects to

too was a ritual, the very first step towards acceptance in local

the senior officer’s wife on whom alone it was appropriate that

society, fitting neatly into the then prevalent conventions of

she call.

social life. In the days of the Raj, calling cards had a very different connotation from the business cards of today’s world.

Printed on thick ivory paper, calling cards required a carry-case to keep them from getting soiled. Silver calling card

It is no exaggeration to state that without the call, “the newcomer did not exist

socially;”1

the call was an indispensable

cases were made in every part of India, each displaying the regional decoration characteristic of that area. Card cases from

preliminary to qualify for an invitation to any social event. One

Calcutta featured rural life; those from Kutch carried tight scroll

of the first tasks of newcomers to a cantonment, the official

work; those from Kashmir displayed the chinar leaf and poppy

British enclave of a town, was to make this ‘call,’ and for this

pattern; those from Madras were of the Swami (gods), silver type;

ritual everyone ordered calling cards of special elegance with

while Lucknow card cases featured the ‘jungle’ pattern. Cases

their name printed in stylish lettering. Clad appropriately and

were hinged, either along the short top side, so that cards could

formally, and carrying these cards, both new residents and

be inserted vertically, or along the longer rectangular side, so

visitors moved from one bungalow to the next. The ritual of the

cards could be slipped in sideways; occasionally, card cases had

call was just that: the call was absolutely mandatory, and it was

a removable lid along the shorter top side. It appears that men

equally understood that the persons called upon, be ‘Not at

usually carried a smaller and narrower card, while ladies’ cards

Home.’ They might actually have been seated only a few yards

were somewhat larger; the calling card cases displayed here all

away from the front door, but it would be opened by a ‘bearer’

seem intended for ladies. Several of these richly decorated silver

who would receive the callers’ cards on a salver. Margaret

card cases feature a shield in the midst of the pattern to receive

Macmillan explains in her study of women in Raj India that in

the owner’s initials.

hill stations, where the path up to the house was steep and tortuous, the occupants frequently nailed up name boards down below proclaiming a ‘Not At Home’ message upon a box into which to drop calling cards!2 Most Presidencies required the newcomer to initiate the process of the call. Married couples made the call together, Left: Close-up of No. 3, Calling Card Case Featuring Krishna

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1 • Calling Card Case Featuring Durga Madras, ca. 1880 Silver H: 8 cm x 5 cm x 1.5 cm Inscription: ‘Dorothy’ in fine cursive script along top edge of case In the style typical of Swami silver, calling card cases from

2 • Calling Card Case with Vishnu and Consorts Madras, ca. 1880 Silver H: 10 cm x 7 cm x 1.5 cm Maker’s mark: ORR within small stamped rectangle on interior lip God Vishnu, holding the conch shell and discus in two of

Madras are invariably adorned with one or another god from the

his four hands, and seated between his consorts – Bhudevi, goddess

Hindu pantheon. A repoussé image of goddess Durga riding her lion

of earth and Shri Lakshmi, goddess of wealth – is featured on one

mount adorns both faces of this calling card case, which hinges back at

face of this calling card case which opens along its length with the aid

its top for the vertical insertion of cards. Crowned, eight-armed Durga

of a push-button device. Exuberant vine foliage, emerging from the

sits side-saddle upon a fierce heraldic lion that resembles the mythical

mouth of a lion-headed motif known as kirtimukha or face of glory,

yali, a leonine creature often portrayed with an elephant’s trunk, and

encloses the deities, while the lower section of the case echoes this

she holds a conch shell and a discus in her two upper hands testifying

motif. Each corner, enclosed by curving vine tendrils, carries a winged

to her southern identity as the sister of god Vishnu. A parasol that

celestial figure.

speaks of her elevated status interrupts the scalloped arch within which she is placed; flanking the arch and carrying a lute-like vina are

The reverse of the case features a bull-headed male deity

flying celestials whose bodies extend across the hinged cover of the

with four arms, who stands on a raised platform within an aureole

case. Following Durga is the sage Vyaghrapada (his name literally

topped with a kirtimukha (‘face of glory’), and is flanked by two

means ‘he with the feet of a tiger’); his hair is pulled into a topknot

female attendants. The vine tendrils surrounding the shrine contain

while the lower half of his body is portrayed as that of a tiger with

four semi-divine beings that include one fish-tailed image;

clawed feet placed upon a lotus flower. Durga’s lion places its hind

immediately below is a medallion for an inscription that was never

legs on an elephant and its forelegs on a demonic human figure

added, while the lower section carries the figure of an elephant

which appears to be escaping from the elephant. While the

flanked by two males. Since one face features Vishnu, there is a

iconography of Durga is clear, the accompanying figures are curious,

natural inclination to seek a Vaishnava identification for the bull-

as it is with much of Swami silver imagery. It is useful to remind

headed figure; however, the only figure portrayed thus would be

ourselves that strict iconographic accuracy was not necessary in the

Nandi, the bull of Shiva. Perhaps it is futile to seek consistency of

social context of the production and the usage of such silverware.

sectarian iconography in silver objects which were never intended to be viewed in a sacred context. This is especially so since sales catalogs of P. Orr & Sons feature the two sides of this calling card case independently, on two different pages, although cross-checking reveals that the drawings for both faces are numbered 410.3

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3 • Calling Card Case Featuring Krishna4 Madras, ca. 1880 Silver H: 10 cm x 7 cm x 1 cm (See also page 70)

4 • Calling Card Case with Jungle Pattern5 Lucknow, ca. 1880 Silver H: 10 cm x 6.5 cm x 0.8 cm With a hinged top and smooth cylindrical edges, both

Both faces of this case with elegant scalloped edges are

sides of this visiting card case carry the typical Lucknow ‘jungle’

adorned with different forms of the popular god Krishna. Contained

pattern of a thick grove of date palms growing out of an irregular

within a central medallion upheld by a dwarfish figure, one side

base of mounded grass, and inhabited by animals and birds. One

features an image of Krishna dancing upon the serpent demon Kaliya

side features a tiger, an elephant, and a man climbing a tree, with a

whom he has subdued; at the four corners, in the midst of vine

parrot in the upper branches; its top cover depicts an elephant, and

tendrils, are four semi-divine beings. On the other side, within an

a tiger. The other side depicts hyenas, and a man climbing a tree,

arched shrine topped with a lion-headed kirtimukha motif, stands

while a bird perches in the higher branches; its long, narrow top cover

Krishna flanked on each side by an adoring gopi or cowherdess, who

carries a hare, a hyena, and a stork. The carving is well executed and

eagerly grasps his hand with one arm while waving a chowri fan with

continuous across the case except for a smooth polished band

the other. A male devotee with palms joined in the anjali gesture of

separating the body from the top cover.

adoration stands on either side. Immediately below the shrine is a cartouche for an inscription that was never added. Two flying divinities with wings are depicted in the upper corners, with the hinged top imperceptibly dividing these figures into two sections; two seated semi-divine beings occupy the lower corners.

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5 • Calling Card Case with Birds6 Kutch, ca. 1880 Silver H: 9.9 cm x 7 cm x 1 cm Calling card cases from Kutch invariably feature the tight

6 • Calling Card Case with Detachable Cover Kutch, ca. 1880 Silver H: 10.2 cm x 7 cm x 1 cm With a deeply cut scrolling floral pattern upon a textured

scrolling motif typical of the region, interspersed with animals, birds,

background, and a geometric border on all four sides, this calling card

or a hunting scene. This particular case with a hinged cover features

case features an animal with a rider on each face. A well-caparisoned

on both faces parakeets inserted in the midst of scrolling foliage

elephant ridden by its mahout holding an elephant goad in hand is

against a textured background. One face displays a shield devoid of

portrayed on one face, while the other depicts a horse with a rider

initials, flanked by two parakeets facing outwards and two inwards.

holding the reins in one hand and a long spear in the other. Floral

The second face features three parakeets in a triangular formation —

motifs add further decoration to the edges of the case.

the central one on its upper tier and two more in the lower segment.

Both faces are bordered with a leafy scroll that creates an intricately scalloped edge which is smoothly polished.

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7 • Calling Card Case with Floral Pattern Kutch, ca. 1880 Silver H: 9.6 cm x 6.5 cm x 1.8 cm

8 • Left-Handed Calling Card Case Kutch, ca. 1880 Silver H: 10.2 cm x 7.7 cm x 1.1 cm Inscription: Initials HMK within central shield

Against a textured background, this case features a single, swaying branch, with six deeply curved stems, each yielding abundant

With its hinge along the length of its vertical side, this case

flowers of six different varieties. A banded border runs around the

has its snap latch on the left when the case is held with the initials

case, and its edges carry an incised fern-like pattern. The detachable

facing one, suggesting that it was specially made for a left-handed

cover is barely discernible, since the case and its top fit smoothly

owner. It is adorned with deeply cut floral foliage against a textured

together and are designed as a single-patterned composition.

background, with an undulating corded border and an undulating edge. The face that carries the central shield with the initials HMK, features frolicking parakeets at each of the four corners; the other face carries similarly placed parakeets within an overall symmetrical floral pattern.

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9 • Calling Card Case with Floral Pattern Kutch, ca. 1880 Silver H: 9.7 cm x 6.4 cm x 1 cm With a hinged cover along its vertical length, and a snap

10 • Calling Card Case Featuring the Hunt Kutch, ca. 1880 Silver H: 10.7 cm x 7.3 cm x 1.1 cm With deeply cut Kutchi floral foliage against a textured

latch, this calling card case that features a diamond foliate pattern

background, this case features hunting scenes on both its faces, and a

against all four edges, opens fully like a well-bound book. Both its

running animal along its hinged cover. One face portrays a turbaned

faces are adorned with the same scrolling foliage against a textured

rider kneeling upon a caparisoned elephant, about to thrust his spear

background; in the center of one side is a plain oval medallion

into a lion already gored by the elephant’s tusks. The cover on this

intended for an inscription.

face features a hare running through exquisitely stylized foliage. The other face features a turbaned rider with a spear in hand, mounted on a horse, hunting a boar; the hinged cover depicts a wild dog in the foliage. An oval medallion on the top narrow edge of the case seems intended for an inscription.

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11 • Calling Card Case with Chinar Leaves and Poppies Kashmir, ca. 1890 Silver H: 9.8 cm x 7.2 cm x 1 cm The most popular patterns adorning the silverware of

levels. Upon the textured ground of the first level is a second level of

Kashmir are based on the flora and fauna of the valley and include

chased decoration consisting of multiple vines with small rosette

the leaf of the chinar or plane tree, the poppy flower, and the

flowers; an even more highly raised third level of work features chinar

coriander or rosette pattern. This slim case, hinged along its side to

leaves, poppies, small buds and leaves. The sides of the case are

open like a book, carries extensive high relief decoration in three

adorned with incised geometric designs.

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12 • Calling Card Case with Leaf Design Kashmir, ca. 1890 Silver H: 10.8 cm x 7.2 cm x 1.2 cm Flowers and leafy vines cover all surfaces of this

13 • Match Case Kashmir, ca. 1890 Silver H: 5.5 cm x 3.5 cm x 1 cm This small rectangular case with a hinged top seems to

rectangular card case including its rounded edges and hinged lid.

have been intended to hold a box of matches. Each side is adorned

A small plain silver shield on each side remains without its inscription.

with one large multi-petaled poppy flower surrounded by a curving

As was customary with many card cases, a solid band of unadorned

vine from which emerge small rosette flowers. The same small flowers

silver runs along the edge where the lid meets the case.

on a vine are featured on the cover of the match case, while its narrow sides have diagonal stripes.

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14 • Calling Card Case with Rural Scenes Calcutta, ca. 1900 Silver H: 10 cm x 6.8 cm x 1 cm Inscription: AAW monogram With scalloped edges and a floral border motif on both

On the other side, as many as 10 huts stretch into the distance

sides, this card case opens along its narrow end with a hinge at the

amidst trees, while another four adorn the hinged cover. The

right edge of the monogrammed side. Against a textured background,

immediate foreground portrays scenes around a well, with one

both faces are covered with scenes of village and town life. The side

woman approaching it with a water pot, while another pours water

that carries a shield at its center inscribed with the initials AAW,

into a pot with vegetation. A third figure, portrayed on the hinged

portrays multiple huts, and brick houses amidst trees; one villager

cover, sits before a hut.

carries a bundle slung on a stick while a second approaches a well.

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15 • Curved Card Case7 Calcutta, ca. 1900 Silver H: 4.3 cm x 8 cm x 1 cm Inscription: SMS monogrammed on the shield on the convex side This curved card case with a textured background has a

16 • Calling Card Case with Arabesque Pattern Calcutta, ca. 1900 Silver H: 9.6 cm x 6.6 cm x 0.9 cm Inscription: ‘From a Friend’ A dense arabesque pattern with spiral flourishes is incised

plain border on all four sides, and its longer side carries a removable

in very low relief against this rectangular card case to create a

lid over which the repoussé decoration continues uninterrupted.

smoothly finished decorative surface. Both faces of the case are

The convex side of the case carries a central monogrammed shield

similarly treated, except that one side carries a central shield with the

with the owner’s initials, SMS. The left foreground depicts the

inscription ‘From a Friend.’ On the upper half of the other side, almost

squatting figure of a woman with two baskets, one covered and one

obscured by the plume-like decoration, is a diminutive nymph.

open, while to the right there is a man with a basket; both are attending to their various tasks; they are placed against a village backdrop represented by four thatched roof huts amidst trees. The concave side features a woman carrying a large pot of water along a pathway near a village indicated by two huts situated in a landscape filled with plants and trees.

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17 • Filigree Card Case with Gold Overlay Cuttack, Orissa, ca. 1820 Silver H: 6.5 cm x 10.2 cm x 2.4 cm This exquisitely detailed filigree card case carries an oval medallion at its center featuring an open flower, a diamond filigree shape whose sides curve inwards, and a final filigree border. Elaborate spiraling filigree in three bands – the central one smaller and more tightly coiled – fill the triangular corners of the case between its edge and the curved band of the diamond; similar spirals occupy the

1

Margaret MacMillan, Women of the Raj (London: Thames and Hudson,

medallion. The central petaled flower and its layers of swirling filigree,

2

MacMillan, Women of the Raj.

with a braided border, were created separately of gold and placed

3

Wynyard R.T. Wilkinson, Indian Silver, Figure 245, features a page from

smaller spaces between the inner edges of the diamond and the oval

1988), p. 155.

a P. Orr catalog with the card case with the Vishnu face only and

upon the already existing silver filigree with the help of four metal tabs.

numbered 410. P. Orr & Sons, Swami Catalogue, features the bull-headed

The sides of the case feature multiple borders of which the central one is braided. The reverse of the case carries a design very similar to

deity face on its own as no. 410.

4

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, Fig. 247, center row, right, p. 155.

the front except that it lacks the central gold filigree attachment. This

5

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, Plate 218, p. 131.

calling card case is a superb example of filigree work for which

6

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, Plate 165, left, p. 99.

Orissa, and especially the town of Cuttack, continues to be noted.

7

Wilkinson, Indian Silver, Fig. 83, p. 59.

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Tea and the Tea Service

Afternoon tea, partaken in gracious surroundings, has

Tea was hailed for a number of reasons, few having to

become a ritual synonymous with British upper-class culture and

do with the silver tea service that is at the heart of this enquiry.

etiquette. Guests expect to be offered a cup of fragrant liquid

For British army troops, in areas where the water could not be

poured from an elegant teapot, with milk and sugar added from

drunk without danger to health, tea leaves thrown into boiling

its matching milk jug and sugar bowl. Mini tea sandwiches,

water provided the ultimate answer. It was cheaper than the two

scones with clotted cream, and cakes are passed around on

other popular alternatives of beer and wine, and superior in

platters. Today, British afternoon tea is served at exclusive hotel

being non-alcoholic. It proved itself beneficial to health as it

restaurants around the world. It might come as a surprise then

aroused a degree of alertness and, with the addition of

to discover that tea, which came to Britain in the 1650s, was

energy-giving sugar and nutritional milk, provided a healthy

originally an exclusively green tea to which milk was not added.

invigorating drink. Soon it was being hailed for its medicinal

Tea first became a fashionable court drink through the example

side effects too.3

of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese princess who married Charles II of England in 1661, and who brought green tea from

Afternoon tea provided the British, especially in India

China as part of her dowry. Catherine of Braganza’s dowry also

but also in Britain, with the ideal break between lunch and

included the islands that comprise Bombay!

dinner, offering a light refreshment that encouraged relaxation and conversation. British books on etiquette began to include

In 1834, just at the time when black tea from China

chapters on serving tea, rendering it almost a ritual, though not

began to overtake green tea in popularity in Britain, the East

as complicated as the tea imbibing ceremonial of Korea or

India Company’s monopoly of trade between China and Britain

Japan. A silver tea service, consisting of a silver tray holding a

came to an end. The British began an anxious search for an

teapot, milk jug and sugar bowl was considered the height of

alternate source for this leaf that had become so popular in

good taste. Often, the set included a tall pot for hot water which

England. India was the obvious location and, to Britain’s good

was poured into the teapot to steep the tea leaves after the first

fortune, their quest paid off with the discovery of tea, a variety

serving, it being quite customary and proper to accept a second

of the camellia plant, growing wild in the hills of Assam.

cup of tea.

Considerable uncertainty remains as to whether China or India is the home of tea, and one scholar remarks that only further research will yield the

answer.1

Tea sets were made in every part of India and decorated in every local tradition of silverware. Madras created stunning silver tea sets decorated with festival processions of the

The British began to systematically cultivate tea

gods in the style known as Swami (gods) silver. Spouts took the

plantations in Assam; they also planted Chinese black tea in

form of the mythical lion-like yali, handles were serpents upon

other parts of India. By 1900, India was producing nearly 200

which the baby god Krishna crawls upwards, and knobs were

million pounds of tea, of which 85 per cent was exported to

shaped as a seated deity. It was two such Swami tea services

Britain. Tea cultivation in Ceylon, which commenced in the

that were gifted to the Prince of Wales on his 1875–1876 trip to

1870s, was very successful; Assam tea was planted in the

India, one with an additional 12 cups, saucers, and teaspoons,

highlands, and Chinese in the lowlands, with much hybridization

and intended ‘For “Afternoon” Garden Parties.’4 Kashmir

between the two.2

produced tea services decorated with the popular paisley pattern or with a large chinar leaf adorning each side. Frequently, they

Left: Detail of No. 18, Three-piece Tea Service

created tea sets in imitation of the kangri, the individual coal

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burners that Kashmiris carried beneath their long cloaks in the

For those of us who tend to think of Indians as

winter months, or in the form of the kang, a water vessel placed

confirmed tea drinkers, and of India as a major exporter of tea

at an angle on a round base, resulting in an asymmetrical tea

worldwide, it may come as a surprise to know that Indians

service. Kutch produced heavily embossed wares in floral

themselves took to drinking tea only towards the end of the

patterns that meander across the surface, often with a serpent

19th century, after the British started cultivating tea plantations

handle; one fanciful tea service was created in the shape of a

in India. Once introduced, the British custom took such strong

thickly feathered bird. Calcutta tea services were adorned with

hold that it could be seen in full play as late as the 1970s. At the

rural scenes, and Lucknow teapots carried the ‘jungle pattern’

end of the first day of a Kashmiri trek from Pahalgam up to a

with animals beneath tall palms. Each was typical of its region.

glacier, on which we were accompanied by three bearers and a

The exception is a richly patterned tea service created by a

half dozen ponies loaded with equipment, we were encouraged

Scottish firm, which features a range of curiously hybrid figures

to go and relax beside a rushing stream. Upon returning to the

within decorated cartouches, and reflects British admiration for

campsite, we encountered two camp chairs and a small table

‘Indian’ design. The slim bands of ivory attached to the handles

spread with a white tablecloth upon which sat a silver tea

of teapots, milk jugs, and hot water pots in many parts of India

service, complete with a silver tea strainer to catch the tea

are intended as insulation from the heat of the contents.

leaves as the amber fluid was poured out!

18 • Three-piece Tea Service (teapot, milk jug, sugar bowl) Madras, ca. 1890 Swami silver H: 22 cm; 10 cm; 10 cm (See also page 82) This elegant three-piece tea service displays striking

sides, while birds flutter in the sky. The artist has added intriguing

repoussé decoration that portrays gods being carried in temple

practical details that obviously interested him. A male kneels on

processions, attended by male and female devotees who join in the

either side of the ratha’s large, well-detailed wheels, removing

accompanying celebration. The theme is typical of the Swami silver

wedges to facilitate its movement. A standing figure to the left uses

work of Madras, especially that executed by the firm of P. Orr & Sons.

a pole to move it along, and he is assisted by a second male,

All three pieces have cast cobra handles in an elongated C-shape

seemingly on stilts, who uses his position of vantage to weigh down

that are covered with a textured scale pattern, while a cast image of

on the stick held by his companion. To the right, four devotees face

crawling baby Krishna is placed within the handle’s curve. All three

the ratha as they strain to pull backwards at the rope attached to the

pieces feature a beaded band along both base and rim, while the

chariot to move it along in procession. The artist ignored the

teapot and milk jug have variations on a curved spout with an

interruption of the teapot’s handle and placed two pulling figures on

open-mouthed lion-like yali tip.

either side of it. Beyond the ratha is a temple whose well-delineated stone walls enclose an open courtyard which houses an impressive

The tall and gently widening body of the teapot features a

vimana (shrine tower), a flag-staff and trees. A tall entranceway

magnificent pyramidal ratha (temple chariot) surmounted by a parasol

surmounted by bulls facing in opposite directions is approached by a

and adorned with hanging bells and rearing yalis holding a garland

sari-clad devotee with a lamp in her hand. Flanked by flowering trees

in their front paws. It enshrines an image of standing Vishnu flanked

and moving away from the temple is a caparisoned elephant that

by his two consorts, Bhudevi and Shri Lakshmi. Heavenly flying

seemingly indicates the start of the celebratory procession; its rider

apsaras (celestial nymphs) shower blossoms on the ratha from both

holds a pot of holy water on the elephant’s head. The addition of

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flowering trees on the teapot, not seen on the earliest pieces,

a lion-headed kirtimukha or ‘face of glory’ motif. Chowri-bearers flank

suggests a slightly later date of 1890 for the set. A cast image of

the palanquin, and before it a girl dances to honor the deity. Preceding

Krishna dancing upon the subdued serpent demon Kaliya beneath the

the palanquin is a group of musicians playing a variety of instruments

canopy of a tree serves as the knob of the teapot’s lid, to which it is

including the flute and drum, while following it are a caparisoned

attached with a screw. The lid features a set of genre scenes in relief

elephant whose rider holds a flag, as well as a bull with a rider.

that encircle the knob; these include a potter throwing vessels on a wheel, a carpenter sawing planks, a barber with a customer, and

The rounded sugar pot is decorated with a large

other tasks like fetching water, pouring ghee into a fire, and

triple-domed shrine, resting on the ground, that features standing

hammering at an anvil.

Vishnu and his two consorts. It is flanked by parasol-bearers, musicians, singers, and a dancer whose braid sways out behind her

The narrow slender milk jug features a portable image of

with the movement of dance. Completing the celebration is a

standing Vishnu, holding his conch shell and discus, carried on a

flag-bearer seated on a caparisoned elephant. This finely executed

palanquin borne on the shoulders by four male devotees. The arched

tea service, in heavy gauge silver, represents Swami silver at its best.

shrine within which he stands is flanked by parasols and topped with

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19 • Tea Service (teapot, milk jug, sugar bowl) Lucknow, ca. 1900 Silver H: 14.3 cm; 10.4 cm; 9 cm The ‘jungle’ pattern typical of the Lucknow silversmiths’

quality of the treatment of the trees adds to the elegance of the

tradition, that features date palm groves with wild animals on grassy

design. The spout of the teapot continues this theme and portrays a

mounds beneath the trees, adorns this tea service. The body of the

hare in a palm grove. The lid of the teapot too carries a depiction of

teapot is divided into ten vertical segments, separated by vertical

animals in the forest, and its knob, welded to the hinged lid, is a

bands of plain silver that create a fluted look. Each vertical section

standing caparisoned elephant. The borders at the top and bottom of

depicts a palm grove and on the ground below, which is depicted as

the teapot depict fish, the Lucknow royal emblem, in a head-to-tail

semicircular mounds, is an animal such as an elephant, dog, fox,

formation that creates the effect of a scroll. The teapot, together with

antelope, rabbit and, in one instance, a bird. The strong graphic

the milk jug and sugar bowl, has snake handles with a rearing cobra

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head and a spiral tail, and all three rise from a plain circular

palm tree setting of the other two items of the tea service. Instead, its

spreading foot.

vignettes consist of an animal, a seated sage, a snake, an elephant, and a deer with a hut in the background, while one scene depicts two

The milk jug carries a closely similar composition with

birds. Like the milk jug, it also lacks the fish border which is replaced

eight arched sections, each with a vignette of an animal under a date

by a foliate motif. This tea service is an elegant example of the

palm. The fish border is absent, being replaced instead with a lower

Lucknow jungle design.

border of triangular motifs. Surprisingly, the sugar pot with eleven fluted sections and two serpent handles, one on each side, lacks the

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20 • Tea Service (teapot, milk jug, sugar bowl) Oomersee Mawjee, Kutch, ca. 1884 Silver H: 22.5 cm; 16.7 cm; 13.1 cm Maker’s marks: O.M. stamped within inset rectangle Inscription: On inner surface of teapot handle: ‘Presented to Colonel H. J. Buchanan C. R. Ninth Foot on his marriage 26th February 1884 by his old brother officers.’

This tea service comes from the workshop of the renowned Kutch master silversmith, Oomersee Mawjee, and is adorned with the richly incised floral patterns on a textured background that are typical of the silverware of Kutch. Oomersee Mawjee’s workshops created a number of shapes for their teapots, from the fully rounded and spherical ones, to those that resemble tankards, to taller slender forms such as these seen in this example (though the milk jug and sugar bowl revert to a spherical form). The portfolio of workshop drawings in the collection of John Sequeira confirm the exceedingly wide range of shapes in which tea services were produced, including those modeled on the Indian lota or water ‘mug’ (see Figs. 1 & 2 on p. 39).

All three pieces of this set are covered with the fine and deeply-wrought floral patterns typical of Kutch work. They have ear-shaped handles with a leaf to serve as a thumb rest, while an acorn upon a leafy twig serves as a knob atop the hinged lids of the teapot and milk jug. All items of the tea service rest on four scrolled feet with a shell casing at the joint of the foot to the body. Narrow ivory bands on the handles of the teapot and the milk jug serve as insulation from the heat.

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This catalog is published in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Delight in Design: Indian Silver for the Raj’ held from 18 September – 13 December 2008 at the Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York.

First published in India in 2008 by Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd. in association with TIMELESS BOOKS

Simultaneously published in the United States of America in 2008 by Grantha Corporation 77 Daniele Drive, Hidden Meadows Ocean Township, NJ 07712 E: mapinpub@aol.com

Distributors India, Nepal and Bhutan TIMELESS BOOKS 46, Housing Society, South Extension Part-I

New Delhi 110 049 T: 91 11 46056198 / 2469 3257 • E: sales@tbidelhi.com www.timelessartbookstudio.com North America Antique Collectors’ Club East Works, 116 Pleasant Street, Suite 18 Easthampton, MA 01027 T: 1 800 252 5231 • F: 413 529 0862 E: info@antiquecc.com • www.antiquecollectorsclub.com United Kingdom and Europe Marston Book Services Ltd. 160 Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4YN UK T: 44 (0) 1235 465500 • F: 44 (0) 1235 465555 E: direct.orders@marston.co.uk • www.marston.co.uk Australia and New Zealand Peribo Pty Ltd. 58 Beaumont Road Mount Kuring-Gai NSW 2080 Australia T: 61 02 9457 0011 • F: 9457 0022 E: michael.coffey@peribo.com.au

The Middle East Avicenna Partnership Ltd. P.O. Box 484 Oxford, OX2 9WQ UK F: 44 (0) 1387 247375 E: claire_degruchy@yahoo.co.uk Southeast Asia Paragon Asia Co. Ltd. 687 Taksin Road, Bukkalo, Thonburi Bangkok 10600 Thailand T: 66 2877 7755 • F: 2468 9636 E: info@paragonasia.com Rest of the world Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd. 10B Vidyanagar Society Part I Usmanpura, Ahmedabad 380 014 INDIA T: 91 79 2754 5390/2754 5391 • F: 2754 5392 E: mapin@mapinpub.com • www.mapinpub.com Catalog photography by Richard Goodbody Text and other photographs © as listed All rights reserved under international copyright conventions.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-81-89995-19-5 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-0-944142-43-1 (Grantha) ISBN: 978-81-89497-19-4 (TIMELESS) LCCN: 2008930588 Designed by Paulomi Shah / Mapin Design Studio Edited by Carmen Kagal / Mapin Editorial Printed in Singapore The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standards for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.

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CRAFTS

Delight in Design Indian Silver for the Raj Vidya Dehejia 224 pages, 219 colour photographs 9.5 x 11.5” (241 x 292 mm), hc ISBN: 978-81-89995-19-5 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-0-944142-43-1 (Grantha) ₹2750 | $65 | £42 2008 • World rights