Earthenware jar and cover, Jaipur, about 1880

This pickle jar or martaban has a swelling body on a flared foot and a short neck. It is decorated with floral sprays on the main part of the body, which are painted on the white ground with details in cobalt blue and manganese. These with the green leaves are painted in green (copper oxide) and set against a turquoise (copper) ground. The spandrrels between the arches are painted in blue (cobalt) and decorated with halved flowers. Below there is a band of petals on top of one of acanthus leaf motifs resting on a futther band of inverted acanthus leaf motifs on the foot. A band of flowers has been painted on the shoulders of the jar over which a band of acanthus leaf motifs decorated the neck

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.

This jar and cover was made in the 'Jeypore School of Art'. The school in Jaipur, Rajasthan, 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 shaped in a mould. Vessels of this kind were known locally as 'martaban' jars, after the fort on the coast of Burma through which they were imported into India/ They were first copied in Delhi and later at Jaipur, where their designs were heavily influenced by contemporary European taste.

IS.4-1964