Nose Ring
20th century (made)
Place of origin |
A nose ring made from a loop of gold wire with a hook and eye fastening. The ring is decorated with three kundan settings and threaded with various beads and granulated rings. There are two stylised peacock settings of crimson and green glass stones. There is also a floral rosette kundan setting with the petals inset with crimson glass round a central green glass stone. These decorative elements have little rings soldered onto them, some of which are used to thread clusters of seed pearls and tiny green glass beads with granular finials or to provided a fixing for twists of fine gold wire to fasten them either onto each other or onto the loop of the nose ring. Only two clusters remain but probably there were several more, or possibly the motifs may have been encircled by a string of seed pearls. The kundan elements have flattened cylinders of gold soldered onto their backs so that they may be slotted onto the loop. The rosette has two little twisted wires soldered onto the back for strengthening and the peacock nearest the threaded beads is wedged into place with a sliver of base metal, in a typical technique used widely in Rajasthan. The other peacock is kept in place by a copper wire threaded between one of its rings connecting it to one of the rings at the apex of one of the petals of the rosette next to it. There is a small rosette of seed pearls twisted with fine gold wire onto the loop between the rosette and the left hand peacock. The beads on the left comprise a pair of very dark red glass beads, two hollow gold beads, a pair of granulated rings and a cylindrical red glass bead.
Object details
Category | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Gold, pearls, glass. Kundan, granulation and wirework |
Brief description | nose ring, nath |
Physical description | A nose ring made from a loop of gold wire with a hook and eye fastening. The ring is decorated with three kundan settings and threaded with various beads and granulated rings. There are two stylised peacock settings of crimson and green glass stones. There is also a floral rosette kundan setting with the petals inset with crimson glass round a central green glass stone. These decorative elements have little rings soldered onto them, some of which are used to thread clusters of seed pearls and tiny green glass beads with granular finials or to provided a fixing for twists of fine gold wire to fasten them either onto each other or onto the loop of the nose ring. Only two clusters remain but probably there were several more, or possibly the motifs may have been encircled by a string of seed pearls. The kundan elements have flattened cylinders of gold soldered onto their backs so that they may be slotted onto the loop. The rosette has two little twisted wires soldered onto the back for strengthening and the peacock nearest the threaded beads is wedged into place with a sliver of base metal, in a typical technique used widely in Rajasthan. The other peacock is kept in place by a copper wire threaded between one of its rings connecting it to one of the rings at the apex of one of the petals of the rosette next to it. There is a small rosette of seed pearls twisted with fine gold wire onto the loop between the rosette and the left hand peacock. The beads on the left comprise a pair of very dark red glass beads, two hollow gold beads, a pair of granulated rings and a cylindrical red glass bead. |
Dimensions |
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Credit line | Given by Dr W. Ganguly |
Object history | This nose ring is part of the large donation of Indian folk jewellery from Dr Waltraud Ganguly which was collected over the last few decades before her death in 2015 from dealers in both India and Europe, in parallel with extensive fieldwork she carried out in the Indian Sub-Continent. She purchased it from Amrapali in December 2008 for 680 Euros. |
Bibliographic reference | Ganguly, W., Nose Rings of India, Delhi, 2015
p.78, illus. |
Collection | |
Accession number | IS.417-2019 |
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Record created | June 23, 2015 |
Record URL |
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