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.
Attributed to c. 1850-1860, this rosewater sprinkler has a compressed bulbous body on a pedestal footring. Rising from a band of large stylized acanthus leaves on the shoulders, the neck has a slightly compressed globular collar bordered by plain ring moldings. Extending upward, there is a band of upright fronds, a spiral section with a flowering scroll, and a nozzle in the form of a two-tiered overhanging flowerhead supported by a band of upright everted fronds. The principal decoration on the body is a horizontal band of the Kutch flowering scroll bordered above by band of stylized acanthus leaves. The footring has a central band of open blossoms alternating with upright conjoined leaves on curved stalks.