Huqqa base; glazed earthenware, Jaipur, ca. 1886.

This huqqa base is vase shaped with a long narrow neck on a raised foot. It is painted in turquoise and blue against a white ground in vertical bands and compartments ornamented with simple stylised floral and geometrical designs.

Purchased from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition held in London in 1886

Purchased from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition held in London in 1886. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Museum records (Asia Department registers and/or Central Inventory) as part of a 2023 provenance research project.

Jaipur School of Art produced pottery in the late 19th century after one of the pupils of Bhola, who was a chief artist of Delhi fritware, introduced the technique. As the pieces were made of a mixture of feldspar and starch they could not be thrown on a wheel but were either raised by hand or in a mould. Pickle jars or martabans, as they were locally known, owing to the fort on the coast of Burma through which they were imported into India, were first copied in Delhi and later at Jaipur, where they were decorated in response to European taste. See Watt, Sir George,Indian Art at Delhi: being the Official Catalogue of the Delhi Exhibition, 1902-03, Calcutta, n.d, p.90.

Jaipur School of Art produced pottery in the late 19th century after one of the pupils of Bhola, who was a chief artist of Delhi fritware, introduced the technique. As the pieces were made of a mixture of feldspar and starch they could not be thrown on a wheel but were either raised by hand or in a mould. Pickle jars or martabans, as they were locally known, owing to the fort on the coast of Burma through which they were imported into India, were first copied in Delhi and later at Jaipur, where they were decorated in response to European taste.

IS.136-1886