Inventory

KARA (BRACELET)

Full Description:

This luxurious gold bracelet (or ‘kara’) is adorned with sixteen raised collets, each set with a flat-cut foiled diamond set in the kundan style within a bed of granulated gold. Between each collet is a further leaf-shaped flat-cut diamond – the alternating composition extending densely over a bed of deep-green enamel. The bracelet’s interior surface is decorated with enamel of pink, white and blue hues to depict the alternating flowerheads of lotuses and poppies on a ground of green enamel foliage.

Carvalho discusses a pair of 19^th-century anklets in the collection of Nasser D. Khalili, noting that the vividness of the different shades of pink would suggest that they were the work of enamellers from Sind rather than Benares.[1] This is also true of two Sind guns within the same collection,[2] which show similar enamel work on their barrel bands and metal fittings as can be seen on our bangle. The palette shown in the present example is also similar to some Persian enamel work. Comparing the present object, for example, with No. 16 in this catalogue (the enamel kindjal), we can see how this style of decoration – with its prolific use of blues, pinks and whites – arrives in the Sind region.

Provenance

Purchased from Spink and Son Ltd London early 1980s.