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, 1875 1

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, Madras 2

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 century debates on what constituted ‘traditional’ Indian design and craftsmanship. 3

19th

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

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 CASKET 4

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

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

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

copperplates alongside Moor’s narrative. 25 engravings of Hindu icons were reproduced in

105

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

Above: Labeled as “From zinc casts after designs by Wilkins. The first three Avatars of Vishnu; the Matsyavatara, the Kurmavatara, and the Varahavatara: or the Fish-Tortoise, and Boar-incarnations” Plate 48 from Edward Moor’s Hindoo Pantheon ( 1810)

Above (detail): “From a highly finished and elaborately colored native painting. Mahadeva and Parvati.” Plate 17 from Edward Moor’s Hindoo Pantheon ( 1810) 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 (below left). Apart from commenting on the inability of Indian artists to draw accurately from sculptures or bronzes, Moor did not specifically express his views on Indian art or the visual sources he drew upon. When we compare the engravings from Moor’s pantheon to the plates in the Swami Catalogue, it is difficult to perceive direct relationships between the two. While the firm might have seen Moor’s Hindu Pantheon as buttressing the narrative of Swami silver as an authentic, regional aesthetic with pan-Indian symbolic signification, the catalog did not necessarily exhibit a continuity or extension of Moor’s 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 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, and teaspoons, a teapot, sugar bowl with tongs, a creamer, and three salvers, showcased in a folding box. The perspective view was drafted carefully to show the elaborate construction of the hinged box, alongside the Swami decoration on all the pieces. This first plate encapsulates the sumptuousness of the

gift and, through intricate line drawings, reveals a dense overall ‘pattern’ of Swamis on the surface of the pieces, thus highlighting the complexity of such silverware. The drawings on two of the salvers clearly 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 well as other deities seated within temple niches and participating in temple processions, bears a striking similarity in shape and form to another design presented in the Swami Catalogue (above). 39

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 handles with scrolling vines and intertwined serpents, together with standing deities on the finials (labeled by their English names), were combined with genre scenes of village life or depictions of different castes and occupations. The complete dessert service of 92 pieces in this exhibition (Cat. No. 27) 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 ornamentation 40 (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.

Above left: Drawing of a complete Swami tea service labeled “Presented to His Royal 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 tea service, presented in this exhibition (Cat. No. 26). Introductory Plate of the P. Orr & Sons 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 exhibition (Cat. No. 26). Plate no. 13 of the P.Orr & Sons catalog (1877)

Vidya Dehejia

F IGURE 1, opposite page, above left: ‘Cutch Lotah Shape set’

F IGURE 2, opposite page, above right: Globular tea service

F IGURE 3, opposite page, below: Two bachelor teapots 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 woodwork drawings from Jaipur and other places, compiling them into ‘pattern books.’ 4 In a similar vein, we have seen from the previous essay that the Madras firm of P. Orr & Sons used their drawings, transformed into printed material, as catalogs from which customers could place orders. 5

One half of the current portfolio of drawings consists of full-size images of objects that the workshops of Oomersee Mawjee & Sons could produce for sale. These are all pencil drawings on thin paper which appears to have been produced in rolls, and carries the watermark of Howard and Jones,

F IGURE 4, below left: Bamboo-shaped tea service

F IGURE 5, below right: Fluted tea service 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 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 demon, and Matsya, the fish avatar of Vishnu (Fig. No. 6). The drawings offer each featured item in a

F IGURE 6: ‘Cutch Swamy work Teaset’

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

F IGURE 7: Chinese-style tea service

FIGURE 8: Kutch work mirrors

F IGURE 9, far right: Mirrors in the Calcutta rural style

F IGURE 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

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 b eautiful. 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

F IGURE 11: Quatrefoil salver

FIGURE 12: ‘Arabian shape Claret Jug’

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

FIGURE 13: ‘Scraps’ with animal and bird studies

F IGURE 14: ‘Scrap’ featuring Raja Ravi Varma scenes

F IGURE 15: ‘Scrap’ with Lucknow hunting

and animal scenes

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 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.

F IGURE 16: ’Scrap’ carrying Gothic style initials on both sides

1. 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. 2. 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.” 3. 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 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. 4. McGowan, “Developing Traditions,” pp. 21 , 37–38. 5. Dipti Khera, “’Designs to Suit Every Taste”:

P. Orr and Sons and Swami Silver,” pp. 20–37. 6. 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. 7. 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.

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).