Bracelet thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
South Asia Gallery, Room 41

Bracelet

ca. 1850 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Dholpur (made)

This Indian-made bracelet is enamelled on the outside in translucent royal blue, a popular colour in Victorian England and an example of British influence on Indian enamel at this time. The inside is enamelled with a scroll of red flowers and green leaves on a white ground, with red and green parrots and pigeons pecking the leaves with translucent yellow or green beaks. Indian ornaments often had beautiful enamel work on the inside, which protected the soft gold from being gradually abraded by contact with the wearer's skin.

This piece was bought for the Great Exhibition and may have been specifically made for it or it may have been purchased simply as a good example of existing work of this kind.


Object details

Categories
Access_to_Images 2003
Jewellery
SCRAN
Metalwork
Gemstones
Object type
Bracelet
Materials and techniques
Enamelled gold, set with diamonds
Brief description
Bracelet, enamelled, Rajasthan (possibly Dholpur), India, about 1850
Physical description
Bracelet in three hinged sections, enamelled gold set with diamonds.
Dimensions
  • Each link height: 2.4cm
  • Length: 5cm (flexible design so dimensions can vary)
  • Whole object length: 39.5cm
  • Length: 200mm (cord length )
  • Thickness: 4mm
Object history
Acquired from the Great Exhibition of 1851, London, as 'modern' work from Dholpur
Production
Rajasthan, India
Summary
This Indian-made bracelet is enamelled on the outside in translucent royal blue, a popular colour in Victorian England and an example of British influence on Indian enamel at this time. The inside is enamelled with a scroll of red flowers and green leaves on a white ground, with red and green parrots and pigeons pecking the leaves with translucent yellow or green beaks. Indian ornaments often had beautiful enamel work on the inside, which protected the soft gold from being gradually abraded by contact with the wearer's skin.

This piece was bought for the Great Exhibition and may have been specifically made for it or it may have been purchased simply as a good example of existing work of this kind.
Bibliographic references
  • Susan Stronge, Nima Smith, and J.C. Harle. A Golden Treasury : Jewellery from the Indian Subcontinent London : Victoria and Albert Museum in association with Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, 1988. ISBN: 0944142168 p.90 STRONGE, Susan, Nima Smith and James Harle, A Golden Treasury. Jewellery from the Indian subcontinent, London, 1988, catalogue number 85, p.90
  • Jackson, Anna and Ji Wei (eds.) with Rosemary Crill, Ainsley M. Cameron and Nicholas Barnard, compiled by the Palace Museum, translated by Yuan Hong, Qi Yue and Liu Ran. The Splendour of India' Royal Courts : Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Beijing: the Forbidden City Publishing House, 2013. Text in English and Chinese. ISBN 9787513403917. pps. 130-131
  • Re-use: The Art and Politics of Integration and Anxiety [Elektronisk resurs]. Sage Publications, 2012 Nick Barnard; Indian Jewellery and nineteenth century Britain; evolving patterns of re-use; ch. 5 and pl. 5.5
  • Bryant, Julius and Weber, Susan; John Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London Newhaven: Yale University Press, 2017 p. 8, fig. 1.14, cat. 23 and p. 527
Collection
South & South East Asia Collection
Accession number
120-1852

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Record createdFebruary 26, 2004
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O94085/bracelet-unknown/
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