- Title
- Rosewater Sprinkler
- Date Made
- circa 1800-1825
- Medium
- Silver, repoussé and chased
- Dimensions
- a) Top height: 1 1/4 in. (3.18 cm)
a) Top diameter: 1 1/2 in. (3.81 cm)
b) Base: 13 1/4 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (33.66 x 11.43 x 5.72 cm)
a-b) Overall: 14 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (35.56 x 11.43 x 5.72 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2013.220.8a-b
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Rosewater sprinklers, known as gulab pash, were initially used at the Mughal court in the 16th-17th centuries to celebrate the Iranian festival of Ab Pashi, which commemorated an historical rainfall that ended a drought and famine. A painting depicting the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-27) celebrating Ab Pashi in June 1614 is now in the Raza Library, Rampur (Album 1, folio 5a). By the 18th-19th centuries, the use of sprinklers for dispensing rosewater and other scents on honored guests at auspicious occasions had been adopted throughout South Asia and by European residents, with sprinklers being produced in various locales and in a wide range of decorative styles and media.
This rosewater sprinkler was likely produced in the Lucknow or Delhi regions. The nozzle has a flat flower-head with horizontal conjoined petals. The tapering long neck has a biconvex lenticular pattern that is interrupted by a compressed globular collar and then continued in four border rows along the sides and bottom of the bulbous body. The central design on the body is a large iris blossom set against a plain ground. A thick cable molding transitions to a splayed hexagonal base with pendent laplets and a plain vertical edge.