This elaborate tray and matching box with four scent vials epitomize the refined material culture and exquisite enameling of Lucknow fashionable around the end of the 18th century. The tray and exterior of the box are enameled silver. Enticingly, the interior of the box and the exterior of its scent vials have been upgraded from a silver to a gilded silver ground, evoking a literally richer aesthetic experience when the box is opened. Upright floral sprays festooned around the edge of the tray follow an apparent metalware convention for symbolizing an object’s function as a container for rose water or other perfumes. The Lucknow-style design program consists principally of translucent dark blue, aubergine, and green enamels depicting flowering vines and plants, especially rosettes and lilies, with perching birds interposed amongst the lush vegetation. More generic decorative elements include an trellis pattern on the lid and a diaper pattern of translucent green enameled lotus leaves on the scent vials. Along with betel leaf quids, rose water and other fragrances have long been the customary amenity offered to honored guests in South Asia. Lucknow’s nobility, harem, and refined courtesans were especially renowned for their conspicuous use of myriad perfumes. By the turn of the 19th century, colonial European accounts documented the manufacturing techniques of rose water, attar of roses, and other perfumes.

• Markel, Stephen. Mughal and Early Modern Metalware from South Asia at LACMA: An Online Scholarly Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020. https://archive.org/details/mughal-metalware (accessed September 7, 2021).
• Rosenfield, John.  The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection.  Boston:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
• Markel, Stephen & Gude, Tushara Bundu. India's Fabled City. The Art of Courtly Lucknow. Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Del Monico Books- Prestel. Los Angeles, CA. 2010..