AN INDIAN POLYCHROME-ENAMELLED AND GEM-SET GOLD ANIMAL FIGURINE
Jaipur, Rajasthan, North-Western India, late 19th - early 20th century

Zoomorphically designed as a lion attacking a black ox, the animal figures standing on a stepped and elongated rectangular pedestal with rounded corners, painted in typical Jaipuri meenakari (enamel) palette in white, red, and green, with the addition of black and cobalt blue, set with faceted diamonds and cabochon-cut rubies on the back of both animals and base with flowering scrolls, 5.7cm x 11.9cm, 363gr.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, A Gentleman’s Cabinet of Curiosities: The Collection of the Late Naim Attallah, 23 November 2021, lot 99.

Earlier in the same year of purchase, an analogous pair of Jaipur polychrome-enamelled and bejewelled gold elephant figurines, once part of the family collection of the Late Countess Mountbatten of Burma, successfully sold at Sotheby's London, 24 March 2021, lot 317.