Cup, two-handled, leaf and flower motifs, rock crystal, Mughal empire, late 17th century, formerly in the Guthrie Collection

A round cup with a short, recessed foot and two opposing handles, Fashioned to a high standard in colourless rock crystal and polished all over.
The interior surface is smooth and unadorned and the only external decoration to the wall consists of two leaves carved in low relief on opposite sides. Each leaf is aligned vertically, with its stem starting just above the foot rim and rising to near the rim where the leaf-tip curls away from the cup and transforms into a scroll handle. Each scroll has a small, central, blind drill hole on either side as well as a small, carved and unpolished channel on the outer edge, strongly suggesting that some set adornments were intended for, or have been lost from, the handles.
The foot recess is carved with a flower that has four scalloped petals surrounding a central disc that contains a four-rayed star. There is a small remnant of a natural flaw to the foot rim.

This cup was originally in the Guthrie collection - no. 192 with 02613(IS) and was purchased together with saucer [02613(IS)] for the sum of £28-0-0, 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 elegantly simple and well-proportioned cup very clearly illustrates the skill of Mughal craftsmen and was probably made in the late 17th century. It has been carved from a single crystal of clear, colourless quartz and has polished surfaces. The understated, integral handles, were probably once set with small ruby cabochons.
It was previously owned by the notable collector of Mughal jade and rock crystal objects, Colonel Charles Seton Guthrie who sold it to the Indian Museum in London in 1868. It was transferred to this museum in 1879.

02612(IS)