A GILT AND ENAMELLED MOULD-BLOWN MUGHAL GLASS PERFUME BOTTLE
India, 18th century

The bulbous body in the shape of a strawberry, with narrow shoulders, rising to a tapering ringed neck, painted in cobalt blue, copper green and gold enamels, the gadrooned body divided in alternating bands with drop-shaped painted decorations and thin indented dots, on the base and shoulders crowns of green foliage, remains of a thin handle to one side, within a later, yellow-lined and padded box, 13.2cm high.

According to Carboni, good-quality bubble-free glass, mostly colourless or enamelled in gold, blue and green, can be attributed mainly to the first half of the 18th century. This high-quality production was not limited to huqqa bases and spittoons only, but it went as far tobacco snuffboxes, elegant tea sets and refined objects part of the daily routine at court, including toiletries, such as our scent bottle (S. Carboni and D. Whitehouse, Glass of the Sultans, 2001, p. 276). A Mughal gilt clear glass vase designed in the same shape of our bottle was successfully sold as part of the Saeed Motamed Collection at Christie's South Kensington, 22 April 2013, lot 270.