Nose Ring
20th century (made)
| Place of origin |
A very large nose ring made of gold wire decorated with a stylised parrot made of strings of seed pearls with a bulging eye made out of an uncut Burmese ruby surmounted by an iris of seed pearls with a kundan set ruby as the pupil. The ruby eye has a gold back plate and the body of the bird has a flattened piece of curving copper wired onto the rows of pearls to act as a stiffening brace. Below the bird there is a variety of kundan motifs set with diamonds and red and green stones. Surrounding them is an infill of Basra pearls of various shapes and sizes together with alternate ruby beads. The three principal motifs have two pendants of more Kundan-set gems with clusters of tiney seed pearls suspended from them while the third element has an oblong pearl in the middle of two clusters of rubies and pearls. The lower edge of the ring has a series of granulated bands and discs, pearls, gold beads and rolls of coiled gold wire.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Gold, copper, pearls and rubies with green and red stones set in kundan or strung on gold wire. |
| Brief description | Large nose ring in gold, copper, rubies, pearls, diamonds and red and green stones, from either Sindh in Pakistan or nearby Rajasthan across the border in India. |
| Physical description | A very large nose ring made of gold wire decorated with a stylised parrot made of strings of seed pearls with a bulging eye made out of an uncut Burmese ruby surmounted by an iris of seed pearls with a kundan set ruby as the pupil. The ruby eye has a gold back plate and the body of the bird has a flattened piece of curving copper wired onto the rows of pearls to act as a stiffening brace. Below the bird there is a variety of kundan motifs set with diamonds and red and green stones. Surrounding them is an infill of Basra pearls of various shapes and sizes together with alternate ruby beads. The three principal motifs have two pendants of more Kundan-set gems with clusters of tiney seed pearls suspended from them while the third element has an oblong pearl in the middle of two clusters of rubies and pearls. The lower edge of the ring has a series of granulated bands and discs, pearls, gold beads and rolls of coiled gold wire. |
| Dimensions |
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| Credit line | Given by Dr W. Ganguly |
| Object history | Purchased by Dr Ganguly from Amrapali, Jaipur, December 2010 |
| Historical context | Dr. Ganguly she records that the unusual forms of the kundan gold motifs and the remarable eye have no symbolic meaning and are purely decorative. She also notes that it was the practice for over a hundred years or more to break out any Burmese rubies from nose rings to be sold separately. Sometimes certain forms of these rubies were sliced in half in order to make matching pairs. The Basra pearls, too, would be extracted and applied to other jewellery pieces. |
| Bibliographic reference | Ganguly, W., Nose Rings of India, Delhi, 2015
83 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | IS.281-2019 |
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| Record created | May 19, 2015 |
| Record URL |
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