This elegant six-lobed bowl is fashioned from pale rose-colored agate. The bowl is supported by a plain circular foot and is unadorned except for a gilded copper rim. The lobed form of the bowl was likely inspired by long established Chinese and Middle Eastern vessel traditions, principally in ceramic or metalware. Agate decorative objects required a labor-intensive method of production. The variegated mineral, a type of quartz, was cut or sawed into an appropriately sized block with a bow or string saw and an applied abrasive slurry (wet solution) containing particles of diamond, emery, or corundum. The rough blocks were shaped and polished into the required decorative form using the traditional South Asian method of a bow-powered lathe with rotating spindles fitted with various grinding plates for shaping and polishing, cutting wheels for carving designs, and diamond-tipped metal bores for drilling holes, all of which were augmented by abrasive slurries. Raw agate was often enhanced visually by sun-baking or fire-roasting it in shallow trenches, which intensified and deepened its natural hues. Agate was produced and traded since ancient times in Cambay (present-day Khambhat) in western India. It was used primarily to make or decorate sumptuous dining vessels and weapon hilts, and as an ornamental inlay on Mughal monuments. Agate items were popular in the 16th and 17th centuries as export ware made for the international maritime market with Portugal and the Middle East.