A rare ivory priming flask, North India, late 17th or early 18th century

Philippe Missillier Collection no.157C

Carved in two parts as a single antelope, the present powder horn is one of a small sub-group within the wider series of zoomorphic powder horns. While the majority are carved in relief with multiple animals on the body and a nozzle often formed of a buffalo attacked by a lion, this rare sub-group is characterised by the elongated smooth body of the antelope, its rear legs extended and the forelegs raised under the neck as if running at full speed, and a nozzle simply carved as an antelope head. The spring mechanism is placed between the animal’s horns.

A group of similar powder horns, with polychrome decoration, is in the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur, dated by Robert Elgood to the second half of the seventeenth or early eighteenth century and attributed to Rajasthan (Elgood 2015, pp.240-1, no.173). Another example is in the Cincinnati Art Museum (inv. no.1978.226; Smart and Walker 1985, pp.82-83, no.59) and one is in the Furusiyya collection (inv. no.R-717; Mohamed 2008, pp.286-7). A polychrome example, lacking the spring mechanism for the aperture, was sold in these rooms, 5 October 2011, lot 296.