Pilgrim Flask

Field Flask

The flask is of a flattened crescent shape with voluted "horns" ending in small knob finials. The tall neck, overlapping the body in saddle-shaped lappets, flares to a flat lip. Attached to the neck of the shoulders and below the rim are attached loops with rings for suspending the vessel. At one end is an attached spout for pouring and a loop on its lower side. The vessel would have been filled from the top and provided with stoppers, now missing. The flask rests on a slightly flaring rhomboid foot with a rolled rim.

Brass or bronze water vessels of this very elegant shape were, like the Ottoman one (MMA 1984.100, no. 87 in this volume), based on leather prototypes. Field flasks of this type can be seen in both Mughal and Deccani miniature paintings, slung, with other gear, around the wearer's waist.

Mary Lukens Swietochowsky in [Walker et al. 1994]

[ John Lawrence Fine Arts Inc., London, by 1985–92; sold to MMA]

Mexico City. Colegio de San Ildefonso. "Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York," September 30, 1994–January 8, 1995, no. 88.

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Courtly Radiance: Metalwork from Islamic India," September 25, 2001–May 5, 2002, no catalogue.

Desai, Vishakha N. Life at Court: Art for India's Rulers, 16th–19th Centuries. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985. cat. no. 108.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daniel S. Walker, Arturo Ponce Guadián, Sussan Babaie, Stefano Carboni, Aimee Froom, Marie Lukens Swietochowski, Tomoko Masuya, Annie Christine Daskalakis-Matthews, Abdallah Kahli, and Rochelle Kessler. "Colegio de San Ildefonso, Septiembre de 1994–Enero de 1995." In Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1994. no. 88, pp. 220–21, ill. (b/w).

Zebrowski, Mark. Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India. London: Laurence King Publishers, 1997. pp. 198–99, ill. pls. 301 (b/w), 517 (color).

Stronge, Susan. The Great Mughals Art, Architecture and Opulance. London: V&A Publications, 2024. p. 89, ill. fig. 73.