A silver-gilt coconut portable qalyan (waterpipe) base, Indonesia or Malay Archipelago, South East Asia, 18th century, of elongated oval shape, the lower part carved out of a coconut, plain on the exterior, the upper part enhanced with chased and engraved silver-gilt mounting with a reinforced circular mouth and tubular spout on the shoulder, the decoration consisting of a scrolling vegetal spray interspersed amidst rosette bouquets, foliate trellis and lush palmettes against a gently ring-punched ground, around the shoulders a floral collar with beaded motif and small oval leaves, mounted on a black metal stand, the mouth 3cm diam., 16cm high excluding the stand.

Coco-de-mer and coconuts were an exotic commodity in the Islamic and Indian Empires of the 16th - 18th centuries. Originating mostly from the Seychelles and Maldives in the Indian Ocean and from the shores of South East Asia, they soon became an essential possession to showcase at court. Most portable huqqas / qalyans bases in both Iran and India during the 17th and 18th centuries were made from coco-de-mer. The small size and light weight would have facilitated its transportability, allowing for the patron to easily hold the water pipe in one hand. It is believed that some of these models have been in use in South East Asia as well, from where our example is presumed to come, given the typical South East Asian style of the decoration on the parcel-gilt mounting.