Cutch, Bhuj circa 1900 by Oomersi Mawji jnr (active 1890-1930)
A late 19th / early 20th century Anglo – Indian silver three-piece tea service

Raj period. Comprising a teapot, a milk jug, and a twin handled sugar bowl. Each of rounded cuboidal form. The teapot with a curved panelled section spout opposite a handle formed as an elephant’s head fitted with ivory insulators pinned to sockets. The cavetto upper section with a hinged domed lid of conforming shape surmounted by a finial of a coiled cobra. The milk and sugar of related form with the same handles. Each side with chased decoration of various scenes all amidst foliate scrolls and rosettes, upon the teapot additionally populated with birds. The teapot with a man upon a saddled horse spearing a boar, hounds attacking a stag, hounds attacking a boar, an elephant wrapping its trunk around a lion; the milk jug with an elephant with houdah and rider, a hound upon a deer, two wild dogs, hounds upon a boar; the sugar with a lion upon a deer, a wild dog upon a sheep, two hounds upon an antelope, and two wild dogs. All against a textured ground between two bands of stylised acanthus forms, the handles with chased sections to each elephant nettipattam. Each with gilt interiors. Each marked underneath with O.M BHUJ incuse. (3)

Teapot length - 25.5 cm / 10.05 inches

Weight – 1363 grams / 43.82 ozt

Removed from India sometime shortly before WWII, gifted to the ancestor of the vendor

Oomersi Mawji – Master Silversmith

Of all the Indian silver producing artisans in India, one name stands out as associated with pieces of the very finest quality: Oomersi Mawji. Pieces by this accomplished master began to appear circa 1860 and they continued to be produced by his sons and grandsons will into the twentieth century.

There is no doubt that Oomersi Mawji was one of the most gifted silversmiths working anywhere in the world during his lifetime. His understanding of form, proportion and decoration, his willingness to devote extra labour to a piece to truly perfect it to world-class standards, and his use of an extremely high grade of silver (often 98 per cent pure) combine to lend even the most mundane objects an aura of grandeur, placing this artist in the ranks of the finest craftsmen. The standards of quality, workmanship, and design, often enhanced with a little humour (the lizard about to pounch on the scorpian in this case) were passed to the artist’s progeny and characterise their work as well.

With its sensuous forms and intricate ornament, the work of Oomersi Mawji has enormous appeal. Every painstaking detail covering almost the whole surface of each object is an element drawn from nature. Sinuous plants coil and wind in infinite undulating, swirling patterns through which emerge stylised poppies, which curl and twist to reveal every stage of flowering.

The laborious process of chasing the silver to this design from the outside while the interior is filled with mixture of resin and wax called kil, it involves heating the metal and cooling it rapidly to soften it then repeating the chasing with kil once or twice again. This process has often wrongly been referred to as repoussé. "Working the silver with ingenious skill and patience, Oomersi Mawji and his sons raised the quality of decoration on Cutch silver to an art form" notes Wynyard Wilkinson in his seminal Indian Silver 1858 - 1947: Silver from the Indian Sub-continent and Burma Made by Local Craftsmen in Western Forms [London, 1999].

The elephant design grappling with a lion with his trunk on this teapot is preserved as a drawing from the Mawji workshop and is illustrated (second from the left bottom row) in Dehejia, V. (2008), Delight in Design Indian Silver for the Raj, Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing. p.128.

The elephant handles with nettipattam were a feature on other Mawji silverware such as a twin handled bowl dated 1883, sold Christie’s New York, 22 Oct 2014, lot 99 ($20,000 incl. prem)

Ivory declaration: B4M4R4TX