Powder horn
Indian - Deccan
Category
Ivory and bone
Date
1725 - 1775
Materials
Buffalo horn, ivory, silk, gold, lacquer and mica
Measurements
500 mm (L); 145 mm (Dia)
Place of origin
Deccan
Order this imageCollection
Powis Castle and Garden, Powys
NT 1180687
Summary
Large powder horn; a buffalo horn with ivory mounts and silk cord. The horn is closed at it's wide end by an ivory cap, carved and pierced with a seated male figure with a huqqa and with animals within a net pattern; red lacquer decoration with gold-leaf under mica? beneath the band of red pattern. The opening at the narrow end is closed by an ivory screw top in the shape of an elephant's head with banded ivory necking; red lacquer decoration and with traces of gold leaf within some of the bands. The silk suspension cord is threaded through two small ivory mounts in the form of crouching cats (prob.tigers). See catalogue pg.93/129.
Provenance
Collected by Robert Clive (1725-1774). Listed in 1775 inventory as 'One large Horn with an Elephant's head, cut in Ivory'. Brought to Powis Castle from Walcot Hall in 1930. Accepted by HM Treasury on 21st March, 1963 in lieu of tax and conveyed to National Trust ownership on 29th November 1963.
Makers and roles
Indian - Deccan , maker