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"Treasury of the World"

Highlights of The al-Sabah Collection

Explore The Jeweled Arts of India


Handle (probably for a staff)
Handle (probably for a staff)
LNS 1649 J
Gold over an iron core, worked in kundan technique and set with ruibes, emeralds, diamonds and agate
Lenth 101 mm; max. width 28 mm
India, Mughal or Dccan, late 16th-1st half 17th century AD
Photography by Bruce M. White

Carved Set Gemstones

Although a number of pieces seen elsewhere in the exhibition are set with specially carved stones, the examples in this selection are distinguished by the quality and number of carved stones that are set into, and form a special feature of, the larger whole.

One of the highlights of The al-Sabah Collection, and one of the glories of the jeweled arts of the Mughal period, is this staff handle in the form of a dragon's head. With its voluptuously carved crest and nose of peculiarly Indian profile, both of superb Burma rubies, it stands at the head of this group, while being slightly unsettling, with its intense fierceness and only the slightest ironic smirk.

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