A late 19^th /early 20^th century Anglo – Indian unmarked silver bowl, probably Poona circa 1900

of inverted baluster form with a fold over rim. The body with embossed decoration in a hunting type pattern showing two hunters within a houdah on an elephant shooting at a lion, a horse and rider spearing an ox, a lion attacking a gazelle, and a hunter shooting at a lion attacking a boar. The figures all between trees and foliage against a textured ground, all above a band of wrythen stylised leaves.

Diameter – 21 cm / 8.15 inches

Height – 14.2 cm / 5.5 inches

Weight – 954 grams / 30.67 ozt

The work on this bowl may very well be the work of a craftsman who trained in Lucknow, using the typical hunting pattern for that area, but certain differences from the shape of the bowl and the depiction of the faces suggest that this was worked upon in Poona, where a complex array of silverwork was produced, most noticeably by Heerappa Boochena.