Comb, white nephrite jade, inset rubies, emeralds and gold, damaged and repaired, Mughal, 18th century, formerly in the Guthrie collection

A comb, fashioned in white nephrite jade with integral teeth and with a scalloped top edge. Each face has been inlaid with gold wire and a pair of small, inset ruby cabochons on either end of the row of teeth. Each face also has two birds which stand facing each other on either side of a flower motif. On one face, each bird is formed of three inset rubies and the flower is formed of six emerald petals surrounding a ruby centre. On the other face, each bird is formed of six emeralds with the flower being formed of six ruby petals surrounding a diamond centre. In total, there are twenty-one rubies, twelve emeralds and one diamond, all of which have been set into reflective, often coloured, closed-back gold settings, a few of which have deteriorated and discoloured or faded.
There has been some damage to one end of the comb which has been broken off and re-attached, together with two replacement teeth, one of which is detached but present. Another tooth has also been broken off and re-attached.

This comb was originally in the Guthrie collection and was purchased for the sum of £14-0-0, when he sold 81 of his objects to The India Museum in 1868. It was subsequently transferred to The South Kensington Museum (later renamed The Victoria & Albert Museum) in 1879. It was damaged when on loan to New York (54/3294).

Charles Seton Guthrie was an important collector of eastern coins and Mughal Empire jade and rock crystal objects. He was the second son of Scottish parents, both of whom were from noble and landed families, and his father worked for the East India Company in Calcutta.
Guthrie most probably developed his interest in jade and rock crystal when he studied geology as a 17 year old cadet in 1825 in Addiscombe, and he joined the Bengal Engineers in 1828.
Through his family’s established connection with the Inglis and Lister families, he became acquainted with Harry Inglis and his Anglo-Indian wife Sophia (nee Lister). He may well have received gifts of objects that Harry had acquired as proceeds from his Indian military campaigns. Harry was the son and heir of George Inglis who owned Inglis & Co., a large Indian trading company.
During his time in India, Charles Guthrie enhanced his collections with acquisitions financed by his army pay and also income from properties in his late mother’s estate.
He subsequently retired at the honorary rank of Colonel in 1857, although he returned to England in 1855, at the same time as Harry and Sophia, due to having 2 years of accumulated leave.
Following Harry’s death in 1860, his embalmed body was returned to India, accompanied by Sophia and Charles, where it was interred in an above-ground tomb. Sophia inherited Harry’s vast estate, which almost certainly contained many fine jewels and Mughal objects. Sophia began living together with Charles in Calcutta, bearing him a son in 1862. Following a financially significant arrangement being agreed by Sophia with Charles, the two eventually married in 1863 with the family returning to England a short time thereafter.
Sophia died in 1866, with Charles being named as an executor with instruction to liquidate her un-itemised English estate which included “jewels, trinkets and shawls”.
Soon thereafter, in 1868, Guthrie sold part of his collection of jade and rock crystal objects to The India Museum and his large coin collection to a museum in Germany. Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie died in 1874 and the remainder of his collections was sold at auction, in accordance with the terms of his will, with many objects finding their way into other important collections and then subsequently to the museum.

This well-fashioned comb clearly illustrates the skill of Mughal craftsmen who were producing fine objects from the early 17th century and throughout the 18th century, when it was probably made. It has been fashioned from a single piece of nephrite jade, which is a hard and durable material that requires patience and skill to work. It is set with twenty-one rubies, twelve emeralds and one diamond, all of which have been set into reflective, often coloured, closed-back gold settings, a few of which have deteriorated and discoloured or faded. There has been some damage to one end of the comb which has been broken off and re-attached, together with two replacement teeth. Another tooth has also been broken off and re-attached.
The comb was previously owned by the notable collector of Mughal jade and rock crystal objects, Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie.

02545(IS)