Box, cover and tray, dark green nephrite jade, pierced and carved, inset white nephrite jade panels, inset gold and rubies, Mughal, late 18th century or early 19th century, formerly in the Guthrie Collection

A set comprising a box, cover and tray, of exceptional quality and craftsmanship. All being of rectangular, octagonal form, the box sits comfortably within the tray's recessed base and the cover fits snugly onto the box.
The box's body is fashioned from a single piece of dark green nephrite jade with an elaborately pierced, openwork base and sides in a flower and leaf design within narrow, plain borders. The interior surfaces are smooth and polished while the underside of the base has been carved, chased and polished with the flower and leaf detail. The outer surfaces of the side panels have been recessed and inset with rectangular, flat panels of white nephrite within fine borders of highly purified gold (kundan) wire. These panels and the surrounding borders have been incised and inset with floral designs in gold wire and a total of 288 ruby cabochons set in closed-back, mirrored (and probably coloured) settings. The rim has been worked to give a raised inner rim to enable the cover to be seated securely.
The cover is gently domed with the body fashioned from a single piece of dark green nephrite with elaborately pierced openwork side and centre panels in a flower and leaf design within narrow, plain borders. The interior surfaces are smooth and polished while the outer surfaces of the panels have been recessed and inset with gently curved panels of white nephrite within fine borders of gold wire. The borders and panels have been incised and inset with gold wire and a total of 310 of 311 ruby cabochons (1 is missing), set in closed-back, mirrored (and probably coloured) settings.
The tray has been fashioned from a single piece of dark green nephrite, with a rectangular octagonal, flat base and gently raised sides. The side panels have been elaborately pierced in a flower and leaf design within narrow, plain borders and the underside has been carved, chased and polished with the flower and leaf detail. The underside of the side borders and of the rim have been carved in low relief with leaf designs. The underside of the central base panel has been decorated with a radiating design of overlapping leaves, carved in low relief. The upper surface of the central base panel is smooth and polished and has been inlaid with gold in a complex and delicate design of leaf fronds. The upper surfaces of the side panels have been recessed and inset with flat panels of white nephrite and the borders and panels have been incised and inset with gold wire and a total of 499 ruby cabochons set in closed-back, mirrored (and probably coloured) settings.

The box, cover and tray were originally in the Guthrie collection and were purchased for the sum of £800-0-0, 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.

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 matching set comprising a box, cover and tray were made within the Mughal empire, probably in the late 18th or early 19th century. They have been fashioned to an exceptionally high standard, using the finest of materials, suggesting that they were produced within the imperial court workshops. Each piece has required the work of several different, highly skilled craftsmen to fashion the jade, cut and set the rubies in pure gold using the traditional Indian 'kundan' method. The set originally belonged to the renowned collector of Mughal and other hardstones, Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie who sold it with other objects from his collection to the Indian Museum in Leadenhall Street, London, in 1868. These were all transferred to the South Kensington Museum, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in 1879.

02604(IS) to 02604B/(IS)