Rare Mughal silver vase - Lot 212

Rare Mughal silver vase Embossed and chased silver India, 17th century H. 10.5 cm Weight : 226,2g Provenance : - From the former Joseph Soustiel collection, Marché de l'art Français late 1980s/early 1990s This beautiful silver repoussé and chased vase is a high quality piece, with a striking design of parrots facing each other, a priori without equivalent on this type of material. The presence of parrots is reminiscent of texts in vogue during the Mughal period, such as the Tuti-Nameh, literally "Tales of a Parrot", which was particularly popular during Akbar's reign, and whose late 16th-century illustrated manuscript is one of the earliest examples of the specifically Mughal style of painting. Here, the birds are depicted back-to-back with their beaks turned backwards, facing each other and turning their backs at the same time. Birds facing (or confronting) each other is an ancient theme that can be found as early as medieval times on textiles from Sogdiana, as well as on exotic medieval European architecture. A capital with a very similar bird motif is preserved in the Musée d'Angoulême (D910.1.122). For a Central Asian textile dating from the 13th century, see Sam Fogg's catalog, Islam in Europe, 2023, cat. 5. In the world of the late Eastern empires, this type of parrot and clashing bird decoration was in vogue between the 16th and 18th centuries. Examples can be found on Safavid-period textiles, and even on Turkish Iznik ceramics (see Iznik tile, circa 1575, sold at Sotheby's on March 30, 2022, lot 132). For other objects depicting parrots, see an Indian brass standard in the shape of a parrot, from the same period, given by Lockwood de Forest and held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum (19.135.3). See also a fully enameled parrot, formerly part of the collection of the Nizam of Hyderabad, presented at the Anon sale in Switzerland in 1987 (Anon sale, Habsburg Feldman, Geneva, November 9, 1987, lot 23).