Ewer, mother-of-pearl sections laid over metal bands and secured with metal pins, Gujarat, early 17th century.

Ewer, mother-of-pearl sections secured with iron pins over a framework of metal bands. The base is mounted with a brass fillet. Part of a set comprising its pair (4258-1857), and their salvers (4282 and 4283-1857).

"When acquired by the Museum in 1857, these pieces were thought to be Italian. The conviction that such articles were European was motivated not only by their Western shape, but also by the fact that seventeenth- and eighteenth-century continental goldsmiths consciously copied Gujarati mother-of-pearl work, translating its effects into familiar and new forms, thus creating problems of attribution for future scholars that still exist
today."
Amin Jaffer, Luxury Goods From India: the art of the Indian Cabinet-Maker, London : V&A, 2002, pp.38-39, ill. ISBN: 1 85177 381 9.

Xrays taken in Sculpture conservation on 22 January 2014, and on the closely similar ewers in the British Museum, confirm there is no wood in the construction of this type of vessel.
For the method of construction, see the analysis published in The British Museum Technical Research Bulletin, Volume 1, 2007: Barbara Wills, Susan La Niece, Bet McLeod and Caroline Cartwright, 'A shell garniture from Gujarat, India in the British Museum', pp. 1-8.

This ewer and the set it belongs to, comprising two ewers and two basins, were made in Gujarat in north-west India. However, when the V&A acquired the set in 1857, curators thought these pieces were Italian because their shape is more typical of mainland European models. Another reason for this confusion is that, from about 1600 to 1700, European goldsmiths deliberately copied Gujarati mother-of-pearl work in similar shapes. This created problems of identification for scholars that still exist today.

4257-1857