The practice of inlaying hardstones with gold and precious gemstones was a common artistic technique in jeweled arts from Mughal India. The seven rock crystal pendants of this necklace have been crafted in this technique, and here are inlaid with gold, rubies, sapphires, and quartz. Tiny seed pearls and emerald beads are suspended from the pendants, and the verso is ornamented with high quality meenakari, or enameling with red and green on a white ground. This particular palette was a specialty of Jaipur, the probable location where this piece was made.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Necklace
Date:18th–19th century
Geography:Made in Northern India, Jaipur
Medium:Gold, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones
Dimensions:H. 5 7/8 in. (15 cm) H. 5 7/8 in. (15 cm) D. 3/8 in. (1 cm) L. 19 in. (48.26 cm)
Classification:Jewelry
Credit Line:John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1915
Object Number:15.95.73
Necklace
This necklace has the typical Indian cord slide-and-tassel, which takes the place of a clasp. This arrangement was already well established by the first half of the seventeenth century.
It incorporates enamels (in this case, mostly on the reverse) for which Mughal Indian jewelry is so justly famous (see also MMA nos. 02.18.770, .771). The knowledge that fine enameling was done at Jaipur has led scholars to assume that the finest enamel work was done solely at Jaipur; this could lead one into the trap of deducing that all pieces which incorporate this kind of work must necessarily post-date 1728, the year in which Jaipur was founded.[1] We know unequivocally, however, that fine enameling was being done in Mughal India by 1617; indeed, such a piece was sent by Jahangir to Shah Abbas.[2]
Another typically Indian technique—one that was also, to a limited extent, practiced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Iran and Turkey—is the inlaying of gold and precious stones into objects made of other hardstones. These are most often jade, although this type of inlaying has been known even in stones such as emeralds. The origins of the technique, like the origins of many stylistic and technical elements of Mughal jewelry, are unknown; however, the earliest known examples of gold or silver inlay into hardstone in precisely this manner are jade vessels, where one would in fact expect it to have been developed.
The present piece exemplifies the work of a master jeweler highly cognizant of the intrinsic physical properties and decorative potential of a variety of materials who orchestrated them into a unified totality.
[Jenkins and Keene 1983]
Footnotes:
1. Meen, V. B., and Tushingham, A. D. Crown Jewels of Iran. Toronto, 1968, p. 81.
2. Jahangir. The Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, or Memoirs of Jahangir. Edited by Henry Beveridge. Translated by Alexander Rogers. London, 1909, vol.1, p. 374.
Lockwood de Forest (American), New York (until 1915; sold to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Islamic Jewelry in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 22–August 14, 1983, no. 60.
New York. American Museum of Natural History. "Pearls : A Natural History," October 13, 2001–April 14, 2002.
Chicago. Field Museum of Natural History. "Pearls : A Natural History," June 28, 2002–January 5, 2003.
Atlanta. Fernbank Museum of Natural History. "Pearls : A Natural History," March 22, 2003–July 13, 2003.
Houston. Houston Museum of Natural Science. "Pearls : A Natural History," September 27, 2003–January 18, 2004.
Midland, MI. Midland Center for the Arts. "Pearls : A Natural History," March 13, 2004–July 18, 2004.
Toronto. Royal Ontario Museum. "Pearls : A Natural History," September 18, 2004–January 9, 2005.
Milwaukee. Milwaukee Public Museum. "Pearls : A Natural History," March 5, 2005–June 26, 2005.
Tokyo. National Museum of Nature and Science,Tokyo. "Pearls : A Natural History," October 1, 2005–January 15, 2006.
London. Natural History Museum of London. "Pearls : A Natural History," April 7, 2006–October 15, 2006.
Untracht, Oppi. India: A Jewelry Spectrum. New York: Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture, 1998. no. 365, pp. 57, 62, ill. p. 57 (color).
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, and Manuel Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983. no. 60, pp. 116–17, ill. p. 117 (color).
Landman, Neil H. Pearls: a Natural History. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001. pp. 112–13, ill. (color).
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