This rock crystal bowl was probably made in the Mughal court workshops between about 1700 and 1750. When it came to England, the jewelled mount was added to the foot. It is inscribed on the bottom "Robert Phillips fecit London 1867" (made by Robert Phillips London 1867). He was a jeweller with premises in Cockspur Street, and exhibited the bowl at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle where it won a gold medal. Before that it seems to have been exhibited by Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie (1808-1874) with the rest of his famous collection of Mughal hardstones at the London International Exhibition in 1862. Some of the collection was sold to the Indian Museum and subsequently came to the South Kensington Museum in 1879. Other pieces, including this one, remained with him until his death and were sold at auction in 1875. This piece was bought by Mr Alfred Simson who lent it to the museum with the rest of his small collection of Mughal rock crystal artefacts in 1913 and 1919. His son, Captain Rupert Simson, sold it to the V&A in 1920 in accordance with his father's wishes that stated the price should be what he had originally paid for them.
The jewelled mount is enamelled and set with minute diamonds, agates, rubies and lapis lazuli and is one of two examples in the V&A of Mughal rock crystal bowls with a Phillips addition (the other is IM.634-1875).