Huqqa Mouthpiece
18th century
Place of origin |
The huqqa, a water pipe, was smoked extensively at the Mughal court. Tobacco was introduced to India by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century and is thought to have first been brought to the Mughal empire from the Deccan sultanates in 1604, by the Mughal emperor's emissary Asad Beg. This mouthpiece would have been used to inhale smoke drawn from a water bowl, or huqqa base, via a long flexible tube. It has been fashioned in nephrite jade, imported from Khotan, with added gold and enamel mounts. It has also been set with colourless to weakly coloured stones in reflective, once-coloured settings but with many now show signs of damage and deterioration. Nephrite was often used for artefacts made for the Mughal court from the early seventeenth century.
It was previously owned by the notable collector of Mughal jade and rock crystal objects, Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie, who sold part of his collection to the Indian Museum in Leadenhall Street, London, in 1868. His objects were transferred to the South Kensington Museum, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in 1879.
It was previously owned by the notable collector of Mughal jade and rock crystal objects, Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie, who sold part of his collection to the Indian Museum in Leadenhall Street, London, in 1868. His objects were transferred to the South Kensington Museum, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in 1879.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | White nephrite jade, gold, enamel, silver-gilt. Fashioned using a variety of techniques. |
Brief description | Huqqa mouthpiece, Mughal, white nephrite jade, enamels (blue, green red and white) on gold, clear cabochons in coloured, reflective settings, formerly in the Guthrie collection |
Physical description | A huqqa mouthpiece fashioned in white nephrite jade, with the mouth end angled at approximately 90o to the tubular end that attaches to the pipe, with a narrowing at the junction between the two. The tip of the mouth end is tapered and has been overlaid with a gold sheath that has been enamelled in transparent dark blue, opaque lighter blue, transparent green and red and opaque white. Around the body of the mouth half, adjacent to the constriction, there is an integral collar of four leaves with three being carved in low relief with a outer margin of tarnished gilt silver and the fourth leaf has been carved to a different design and has been raised slightly above the main body. This leaf has been inset with an unidentifiable (in situ) elongated, pear-shaped colourless stone in a reflective, closed-back setting. Around the base of the three similar leaves, there is a band of raised portions of the white nephrite body alternating with inset cabochons in reflective, closed-back settings that have been coloured red or green but which have now deteriorated and faded. The cabochons are unidentifiable in situ and are very pale or colourless with many being badly fractured. There are two similar bands, one at either end, around the tubular section that attaches to the pipe. |
Dimensions |
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Object history | This huqqa mouthpiece was originally in the Guthrie collection and was purchased for the sum of £8-10-0, 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. |
Summary | The huqqa, a water pipe, was smoked extensively at the Mughal court. Tobacco was introduced to India by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century and is thought to have first been brought to the Mughal empire from the Deccan sultanates in 1604, by the Mughal emperor's emissary Asad Beg. This mouthpiece would have been used to inhale smoke drawn from a water bowl, or huqqa base, via a long flexible tube. It has been fashioned in nephrite jade, imported from Khotan, with added gold and enamel mounts. It has also been set with colourless to weakly coloured stones in reflective, once-coloured settings but with many now show signs of damage and deterioration. Nephrite was often used for artefacts made for the Mughal court from the early seventeenth century. It was previously owned by the notable collector of Mughal jade and rock crystal objects, Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie, who sold part of his collection to the Indian Museum in Leadenhall Street, London, in 1868. His objects were transferred to the South Kensington Museum, later renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in 1879. |
Collection | |
Accession number | 02538(IS) |
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Record created | June 25, 2009 |
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