A FINE CARVED NEPHRITE JADE MUGHAL 'LOTUS' CUP
Possibly Agra or Delhi, Northern India, 18th century

The lobed, drop-shaped cup finely carved in the form of a gently convex shell with raised walls, the head curving back to the rim forming a rounded handle from a scrolling floral stem, with a rosette encrusted with an untested cabochon-cut ruby, the cup resting on a fully-blossomed lotus flower base worked in high relief, the polished stone of even, pale green tone with minor dark mottles and red linear inclusions, with an intricately knotted Chinese cream silk tassel wrapped around the head, 14cm x 10cm x 3cm.

*Accompanied by a verbal statement from GCS Lab, London confirming that the cup is made of nephrite jade.

A number of similar jade cups, mostly attributed to late 17th - 18th-century Mughal India, have appeared in the international auction market in recent years, always arousing amazement and curiosity, accompanied by impressive results. For specific comparables, please see Sotheby's Hong Kong, 6 April 2016, lot 3015; Christie's London, 11 November 2003, lot 68; and lastly, Christie's New York, 19 June 2019, lot 295.

Each of these cups shared the quintessential features best represented in 'Shah Jahan's wine cup', a remarkable drinking vessel carved out of a single boulder of white nephrite jade, made for the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628 - 1658) and inscribed with his title, Second Lord of the Conjunction, now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection (acc. no. IS.12-1962). With fluted, lobed bodies; curved vegetal handles; and decorative carvings featuring animal and vegetal motifs, especially rams and lotus flowers, these cups became iconic emblems of Mughal opulence and courtly taste.

But the Mughals were not the only avid collectors of this kind of jade vessels. Indeed, in China, Qing emperors, in particular, Qianlong, were mesmerised by and fascinated with Mughal jades, forcing Chinese lapidaries to keep up and compete in the production of fine, exquisite jade items in the so-called 'Mughal-style'. Qianlong's fond admiration for Indian, Turkish, and Chinese jades of this type can be seen in a number of carved hardstone vessels preserved in the Chinese Palace Collections in Beijing and Taipei. Mughal-style jade cups made during the Qianlong period follow two distinctive forms and styles: an asymmetric gourd shape that closely imitates the famous Shah Jahan Cup, and a Chinese variation of the Mughal version, deeper and with higher lobed walls (see for example Christie's London, 11 November 2003, lot 68). The present example follows the same design and composition as the Shah Jahan Cup, indicating thus a most probably Northern Indian origin.

Two other comparable examples to our cup, featuring an almost identical lotus motif on the exterior, attributed to India, and dated circa 1675 - 1725, can be admired in the Al-Thani Collection (Treasures of the Mughals and the Maharajas, exhibition catalogue, Venice, 2017, p. 106, fig. 57, and p. 108, fig. 58). In particular, the latter example is part of a group of carved jade cups inspired by gourd forms and characterised by a vegetal stem spraying from the handle, and a lotus flower on the exterior acting as a foot. The lot in this sale must have been part of the same group, further corroborating the attribution to 18th-century India.