Description
This elegant huqqa base, characterised by a lobed globular body, a ringed shaft, and a flared cylindrical neck with a gently everted rim, is crafted from the characteristic blackened zinc alloy of Bidar (bidri) and richly polychrome-inlaid with silver and brass. Its convex surface is enriched with alternating vertical ornamental panels arranged in harmonious rhythmic bands of flowering marigolds, poppies, radiating daisies, and rosettes. The collar is further embellished with serrated leaves, while the shaft and neck present cusped lotus petals, a chevron band, and rectangular panels infilled with individual blossoms, visually connecting this register to the main body.
The overall design demonstrates a sophisticated interplay of two-tone metals that accentuates the sculptural lobed and convex form of the huqqa base, creating a sense of swelling luminosity against the deep matte-black ground produced through the traditional Bidri oxidation process.
The botanical decoration of this specimen is particularly noteworthy for its emphasis on flowering poppies, stylised daisies, and marigolds—typical flowers of the Indian Subcontinent—often incorporated on Bidri wares for their rhythmic, almost textile-like repeating patterns. The ornamental variety, together with the fine silver and brass inlay catching the light with remarkable clarity, produces a shimmering pictorial effect, suggesting that this base was produced by highly skilled craftsmen accustomed to high-end commissions from royal and aristocratic circles.
This huqqa’s characteristic lobed globular silhouette recalls Mughal and Deccani prototypes of the late 17th and first half of the 18th centuries. Its rib-like, swelling form and vertical ornamental articulation draw close parallels with a huqqa base formerly in the collection of William Tayler, an official of the East India Company from 1829 to 1859, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. 856-1874), published in Susan Stronge, Bidri Ware: Inlaid Metalwork from India, 1985, pp. 46–47, cat. no. 9.
Another close comparable is the globular huqqa base with lobed lotus collar in the collection of the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, Hyderabad (attributed to mid-18th-century Bidar; see Jagdish Mittal, Bidri Ware and Damascene Work in Jagdish & Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, 2011, pp. 106–107, cat. no. 28), both displaying the same refined Deccani preference for deeply scalloped sectioning and meticulously balanced vegetal ornament distributed across the fluted registers.
The Louvre Museum also preserves a related huqqa base (inv. no. MAO 719), formerly part of the Ariane Faye Collection, recently exhibited at the Hôtel Département des Expositions du Var, Jardins et Palais d’Orient, Draguignan (14 December 2024 – 6 April 2025). Lastly, another relevant parallel may be drawn with the brass- and silver-inlaid huqqa base attributed to late-17th-century Bidar, published in Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver & Bronze from Mughal India, 1997, p. 234, cat. no. 390. Although that example is rendered unique by its combination of figural and botanical motifs in the vertical registers, its floral selection is remarkably close to that of the present example.
Acknowledgment
The above text and literature were produced with the valued collaboration of Ms. B. C. (with thanks).
