- Title
- Rosewater Sprinkler
- Date Made
- circa 1850-1875
- Medium
- Silver, repoussé
- Dimensions
- a-b) Overall height: 12 in. (30.48 cm)
a-b) Overall diameter: 3 1/4 in. (8.26 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2013.220.13a-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.
Attributed to c. 1850-1875, this rosewater sprinkler has a heart-shaped body with plain bordered cartouches of alternating vertical flowering scrolls and flowering plants. Beneath the body is a band of acanthus leaves and a compressed globular collar with fluting. The stepped pedestal footring has a central band of open blossoms alternating with upright conjoined leaves on curved stalks on the upper tier and a band of acanthus leaves on the lower tier. The shoulder has a band of curved laplets and a compressed globular collar with fluting flanked above and below by acanthus leaves. The neck is plain and inscribed with the initials, D.D.G. The nozzle is a large domed flowerhead supported by upright everted fronds and four freestanding poppy flowers set on opposite sides.