A large carved jade bowl, India, Mughal, 18th century

Ex-private collection, France, 1990s

Acquired by the present owner in 2017

Jade was mentioned in the Islamic world as early as the eighth century and traditionally associated with curing digestive ailments. It is noted in early sources as coming from Khotan in the region along the silk road forming present-day Northwest China (R. Pinder-Wilson in Markel 1992, p.35). The polymath Al-Biruni (972-1048 AD) wrote extensively on jade in his treaty on precious stones for the Ghaznavid Sultan Mawdud (d.1050 AD). Under the Mughals, jade craftsmanship reached its apex under two emperors, Jahangir (r.1658-1707) and Shah Jahan (r.1628-58) although earlier accounts testify to the presence of jade at the Mughal court under the Emperor Akbar. It is recorded in the Akbarnama of Abu'l-Fazl that the Central Asian jade merchant Khwaja Mu’in visited the court in 1563 (Markel 1992, p.52). Another account, this time in 1609 by an English merchant, William Hawkins, reported that the royal treasury at Agra contained “some twenty-five kilograms of uncut jade and five hundred drinking cups, that included fifty elaborate ones made of a single piece of jade or other precious minerals” (ibid.).  

This jade bowl belongs to a group of plain, Mughal carved jade pieces most probably intended as dining vessels. For example, a folio from the Baburnama, showing Babur entertained by Badi-uz-Zaman-Mirza in the Jahan Ara Garden in Herat, attributed to circa 1593, depicts a banqueting scene in which green dishes of various shapes are used to serve food (ibid., p.51). Similar jade bowls were sold in these rooms, 8 October 2014, lot 224, 1 May 2019, lot 168 and 23 October 2019, lot 260.