Forehead Ornament
ca. 1850 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This forehead ornament is made of gold set with rock crystal, some of which has been backed with red foil to imitate rubies, and pearls. It was acquired by the Indian Museum in 1855, possibly from the Paris Universal Exhibition of that year. The Indian Museum's records state that it was made in Gujranwala, in the Panjab, and it was probably a contemporary piece at that time. The ornament was transferred with much of the Indian Museum collection to the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum) in 1879. The piece is unuusal for jewellery made in the northern regions of the subcontinent in that it is not enamelled on the back, but a writer noted in 1890 that the jewellers of Gujranwala had their own "very local character", unlike those of Delhi, and Amritsar in the Panjab, who would supply ornaments in almost any style.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Gold set with foiled rock crystal and pearls |
| Brief description | crescent-shaped; Jewellery, gold ruby emerald plate diamond, Panjab |
| Dimensions |
|
| Summary | This forehead ornament is made of gold set with rock crystal, some of which has been backed with red foil to imitate rubies, and pearls. It was acquired by the Indian Museum in 1855, possibly from the Paris Universal Exhibition of that year. The Indian Museum's records state that it was made in Gujranwala, in the Panjab, and it was probably a contemporary piece at that time. The ornament was transferred with much of the Indian Museum collection to the South Kensington Museum (later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum) in 1879. The piece is unuusal for jewellery made in the northern regions of the subcontinent in that it is not enamelled on the back, but a writer noted in 1890 that the jewellers of Gujranwala had their own "very local character", unlike those of Delhi, and Amritsar in the Panjab, who would supply ornaments in almost any style. |
| Bibliographic reference | 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.
p. 61 (illus. p. 60) |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 03133 (IS) |
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| Record created | January 17, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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