“Mughal Glass” | Tara Desjardins’ new book traces the history of glassmaking in India

In a lyrical painting by the master Nainsukh, set in yellow flowering mustard fields, the aesthete Mian rides with his ravishing lady in red. The painting is spectacular because it was set in the 18th century, when electronic speakers were still in the future, and is accompanied by two musicians singing and drumming, while another porter walks alongside, holding a decorated water pipe bladder, which the gentleman smokes fragrantly.

I have seen so many Indian paintings with Subscribe to carrier, but I never thought much about them until I saw the luxurious gold-plated green glass base that adorns the lid Mughal Glass – A History of Glassmaking in India. The “Hubble Bubble” is an onomatopoeic name for Subscribe tothe smoking device that stood on the floor or table and was one of the many Mughal pastimes. Its components – typically a ball or bell-shaped base, a tobacco holder and a mouthpiece – were made of precious stones, metals and sometimes glass. Apart from the disadvantages of smoking, if any, a Subscribe to always slowed the pace of a painting. Its presence signified leisure, refinement and the rhythm of a bygone era.

Born from warmth, used as a luxury

The book by Tara Desjardins, curator for South Asia at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, presents in catalogue form the niche oeuvre of stained glass associated with the Mughal Empire (1526-1858) – undoubtedly some of the most beautiful objects ever made.

Glass as a material with its fleeting fragility was often overshadowed by the scientists of that time. Earlier books such as Mark Zebrowski’s Gold, silver and bronze from the Mughal Empire of India brought jugs, Subscribe to And paandans into people’s imagination by carefully referencing these everyday objects from miniature paintings to show how they were used. This didactic approach expanded the ability to look at historical objects and Mughal glassFor the first time, we broaden our view of the production of decorative glass for luxury everyday objects. The range of colours is incredible – from lapis blue to emerald green to my favourite colour, a deep violet.

In this compilation, Desjardins brings together a decade of concentrated research, tracing the Indian subcontinent’s millennia-old relationship with glass through beads, bracelets and glazed objects. Trade relations with ancient glassblowing civilizations and archaeological excavations in the region are also addressed.

The lavishly illustrated book includes collections of surviving decorated huqqa coasters, bottles, jugs, cups and saucers sourced from museums such as the V&A in London and the Met in New York, auction house databases such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and private collections in Hong Kong and Frankfurt. Refreshingly, the author has also included items from a cross-section of Indian sources, including the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad and the National Museum in New Delhi, making it possible to compare the indigenous collections with international hierarchies.

The book also examines glassy objects using art historical tools such as X-ray spectrometry, providing a solid foundation for future explorations of this topic.

An X-ray that tells stories

It is the inclusion of comprehensive scientific analysis – something that is fundamental to the study of historical objects and is usually lacking in Indian art historical studies – that is a refreshing and central element of this book. For example, the use of energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry in the study of glass enables elemental analysis of inherent constituents such as lime and alumina. It is an exciting area of ​​research because it helps to determine the geographical sources of both the primary glassmaking in India and the manufacturers who exported to the country.

An example is a Subscribe to Base, now in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC, believed to have originally come from West Bengal or Bihar in the 18th century. X-ray fluorescence analysis revealed that the main element in the glass was lead, and the museum’s provenance entry was changed to “United Kingdom” as the object was classified as Jacobite style. In other words, while the shape of the glass Subscribe to It was believed to have been made in India, but science has proven that it was made in England for export to India.

In a rapidly changing world of the 17th and 18th centuries, with its expanding commercial relations, exchange of goods and trade that determined the fate of entire nations, Desjardins presents glass as a commodity and as a form of artistic expression.

Around the world in glass

The art historian also examines form, technique and decorative styles to determine the uniqueness of historical objects. This is where Desjardins’s scholarship comes to the fore, which ranges from her career as an Islamic art specialist at France’s largest auction house to her work as a curator. By bringing together dozens of glass objects “from California to Kuwait, from Denmark to Delhi, identifying and creating a corpus of material previously unknown to scholars of Islamic and Asian art,” a remarkable book emerges.

Her breathtaking research weaves meticulously through collections around the world. Who would have thought that the Salar Jung Museum would have the “largest single collection of glass Subscribe to bases of the world’? Or that the indigenous metal pikdans or spittoons so common in this part of the world would be made of free-blown glass and gilded and find their way into museum collections in London and Doha.

I am saddened to note that most of the beautiful glass shapes in this book are no longer being made. Glass treasured by kings, queens and the wealthy, created from heat and eternally fragile, has survived in institutions and in the pages of this magnificent compilation.

The book is published by Roli Books and is priced at ₹2,995.

The author is founder and director of Eka Archiving Services.