The exquisite mystery of Mughal glass

Her new book — Mughal Glass: A History of Glassmaking in India — contains lush images of more than 200 individual pieces, and explores what made this glass special and what gave the artefacts their shape.

Most of the pieces were crafted between 1725 and 1850, a time when glass manufactured in England was imported into India, then re-melted, moulded and designed here. Before 1725, there have been mentions of glass in the court of Akbar (r. 1556-1605), but this was delicate Italian glass and barely any of it survived, Desjardins says. After 1850, glass went mainstream, becoming cheaper to produce, more widespread and largely losing its status as a luxury commodity.

In an interesting detail, tea had not yet caught on in India in the golden age of Indian glass, so the gilded little tumblers were often used to serve alcoholic beverages.

There was great craftsmanship at play across Mughal-era glassware, and uniquely Indian motifs in distinct artistic styles, yet this remains an entirely neglected area of research, Desjardins says. As a young specialist in Islamic and Orientalist art at the French auction house Tajan, in fact, she struggled to find any information on a glass artefact that came her way.

This prompted her to pursue a PhD in Mughal glass at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. And prompted her to begin work on her book, which brings together a wide array of Mughal-era glass artefacts from museum collections around the world.

There remains a gap in her research, she says. As demand for glass grew in the royal courts of Delhi, Lucknow, Murshidabad, Varanasi and Awadh, kilns and furnaces began to dot the landscape, for instance. But little is known about who owned them. “My guess is that the courts set up the furnaces and commissioned the objects,” Desjardins says. Themes like this are a matter for further research; perhaps by some other scholar, she adds.

Meanwhile, here are some of the most remarkable artefacts in the book, all crafted between 1725 and 1800.

Hunt-themed bottles; Gujarat or Rajasthan

Currently at the Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt

Paintings of royal hunts in the Mughal miniature style can be traced to the 1600s. Scenes from tiger and lion hunts were particularly popular among the maharajas of Kota. This gave rise to an entire school of painters, known as the Kota Masters, who could craft such depictions on canvas, metal or glass. These bottles would have been used to store fragrances or perfumed oils.

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Gem-set hookah; Awadh or Bengal

Currently at the National Museum, Delhi

This type of bell-shaped hookah base sought to imitate, in glass, the traditional kundan technique of setting stones in precious metal. In the absence of metal, the base for the gemstones, here, consists of strips of white enamel covered in gold paint and gold foil.

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Spittoon; Awadh or Bengal

Currently at Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait

Spittoons were often elaborately crafted; it was one way to make their contents and their presence less unsavoury. With paan-chewing rampant in this era, they would have been placed on terraces, beside hookahs, and near seating areas indoors and outdoors. Perhaps to better conceal their contents, most Mughal-era spittoons were usually fashioned from cobalt-blue or emerald-green glass.

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Ewer; Awadh or Bengal

Currently at the British Museum, London

This ewer stands nearly 12 inches high and about 9 inches across, from outer handle edge to tip of spout, making it the largest artefact featured in Desjardins’s book.

The way its five separate components — body, lid, s-shaped handle, spout and base — have been fitted together is considered a technical marvel.

The blue glass painted with gold, and the classical shape of the ewer, stamp it as a Mughal artefact: the curved spout, tall neck, and crescent-shaped top are a design that dates to 14th-century Turkey.

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Grenade-shaped hookah; Awadh or Bengal

Currently at the Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad

The shape is said to have been inspired by the coconut. This hookah base was made from emerald-green glass and decorated in the reverse-gilt technique, in which layers of gold paint are worked onto the almost-finished product. Paintings from the early years of Jahangir’s reign (r. 1605-1627) often show him using a handheld version of the grenade- or coconut-shaped base.

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Rosewater sprinkler; Northern India

Currently at Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf

Rays of gold radiate from a red flower and eight green leaves, each element edged in gold paint. More hand-painted leaves, and a red rose, adorn the neck and sides. A fine band of blue leaves decorates the base of the neck; the colour theme is reflected in similar adornments on the base — some so delicate, they would be easy to miss. The tooled, uneven rim offers more evidence of the handcrafting. Bottles like this one were typically used to sprinkle rosewater on guests, in a gesture of welcome.