Huqqa mouthpiece, rock crystal, green glass, gold leaf over glue, damaged, Mughal, 18th century. With accompanying, weighted wooden display stand (cabinet 263, shelf 3).

Huqqa mouthpiece, fashioned from colourless rock crystal as a waisted, wide-bore tube that narrows down to a smaller bore tube with a bulbous end. The tube is polished on both the interior and exterior. The exterior is decorated with four circumferential bands of inset rectangular cabochons of green glass (25 of 28) set in silvery, reflective, closed-back copper settings. There are also gold lines that are simulating inlaid gold wire but which are in fact engraved channels containing a creamy yellow glue or filler that has been coated with gold leaf. There is significant damage to the wide-bore end where two cabochons have been dislodged, one of which has been retained. A third, smaller cabochon has also been lost.
There is a great difference between the quality of the craftsmanship in the fashioning of the rock crystal body and that of the stone setting and the materials used. Although it is by no means certain, it possibly suggests a later refurbishment of the object.

Purchased from Imre Schwaiger Esq, 39 Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, W.1

This huqqa mouthpiece was bought from Mr. Imre Schwaiger in 1922 for the sum of £21-0-0.
Imre Leonard Schwaiger was a well-respected dealer of gems, jewellery and eastern works of art. He was of Hungarian descent and, as a young man, he travelled to India where he became an expert in appraising them, later becoming the foremost dealer and agent in such objects.
He built up a list of important clients and he was friends with Jacques Cartier, looking after Cartier’s interests in Delhi and acting as the company’s agent in the purchase of gems, jewellery and objets d'art. Schwaiger was also responsible for introducing Cartier to all of the maharajas and other royals during his visit to India for the Delhi Durbar in 1911.
Imre Schwaiger developed a close working relationship with both the Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Museum assisting them with a number of acquisitions. He also generously donated a number of valuable objects to both institutions.

Tobacco was introduced into India by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century and the huqqa was a device that was commonly used to smoke it. The mouthpiece would have been used to draw tobacco smoke through a water bowl (the huqqa base) and into the mouth via a long, flexible tube.
There appears to be some discrepancy between the quality of the craftsmanship that produced the rock crystal mouthpiece and the quality of the inset paste glass stones and gilded resin inlay which, although by no means certain, is suggestive of later refurbishment. The mouthpiece was bought from the noted Hungarian dealer Imre Schwaiger, who was based in Delhi and London, and who was a friend and business associate of Jacques Cartier.

IM.147-1922