Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 137, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

bowl

Bowl
c. 1880 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This bowl was bought for the South Kensington Museum by Caspar Purdon Clarke on his purchasing expedition to India made in 1881-2. It was made by the potter Abdul Majid in Khurja, a historic centre of ceramic production said to have been established in the 14th century and still renowned for its ceramic industry. The name of the town in present-day Uttar Pradesh means 'waste land'. According to Sir George Watt in the official catalogue of the Delhi Exhibition of 1902-1903, Indian Art at Delhi, 1903, Khurja had originally produced pottery in a style all of its own, with decoration raised in slight relief by the use of slips in floral patterns picked out in white and blue against a warm orange brown or pale claret coloured field. Later a rich green-blue was introduced. By the time of the Delhi Exhibition Watt laments that the distinctive style of Khurja had vanished and that their wares imitated those made at Multan with a 'dull and faded' blue, and were made in a number of 'quaint shapes'.


Object details

Category
Object type
Titlebowl (generic title)
Materials and techniques
glazed earthenware
Brief description
Pottery, earthenware, glazed, Abdul Majid, Khurja
Physical description
The bowl of glazed earthenware is decorated on the inside with a pattern of herring-bone and line motifs and with a border of wicker pattern on the outside in green on a yellow ground.
Dimensions
  • Height: 11cm
  • Diameter: 17cm
Style
Summary
This bowl was bought for the South Kensington Museum by Caspar Purdon Clarke on his purchasing expedition to India made in 1881-2. It was made by the potter Abdul Majid in Khurja, a historic centre of ceramic production said to have been established in the 14th century and still renowned for its ceramic industry. The name of the town in present-day Uttar Pradesh means 'waste land'. According to Sir George Watt in the official catalogue of the Delhi Exhibition of 1902-1903, Indian Art at Delhi, 1903, Khurja had originally produced pottery in a style all of its own, with decoration raised in slight relief by the use of slips in floral patterns picked out in white and blue against a warm orange brown or pale claret coloured field. Later a rich green-blue was introduced. By the time of the Delhi Exhibition Watt laments that the distinctive style of Khurja had vanished and that their wares imitated those made at Multan with a 'dull and faded' blue, and were made in a number of 'quaint shapes'.
Collection
Accession number
IS.3271-1883

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Record createdJune 25, 2009
Record URL
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