A MUGHAL RED GLASS HUQQA BASE WITH GILT FLORAL DECORATION, LUCKNOW, INDIA, 18TH CENTURY

Treasures from the Al Thani Collection: Masterpieces from a Royal Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, exh. cat.2018, pp.480-3, cat. no.182.

Treasures from the Al Thani Collection: Masterpieces from a Royal Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, 17 April 2018-17 June 2018.

The production of globular glass huqqa bases in India began at the end of the seventeenth century, and coincided with the recent introduction of tobacco into the Mughal empire at the beginning of the century and its subsequent popularity. This huqqa base was decorated with gilt-floral stems and relates to an example, also gilt with floral stems on green glass, in The British Museum, London, inv. no.1961,1016.1. Another example of similar form with gilt poppy-flowers on a blue glass base is in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, inv. no.1961.44.