- Title
- Spittoon (ugaldan)
- Date Made
- circa 1850-l900
- Medium
- Bidri ware (tarkashi and tehnishan techniques)
- Dimensions
- 7 3/4 x 5 7/8 in. (19.69 x 14.92 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.81.278.2
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Pan is a ceremonial amenity and digestif made of cut betel nut, mineral lime powder or paste, sundry spices, and sometimes tobacco and even gold or silver foil all wrapped in a betel leaf (Piper betle). A wide range of paraphernalia was used in preparing, serving, and consuming pan. These accessories were often made in sets with matching decoration. A critical component was the spittoon, which was used to discard the excess saliva stimulated by chewing the betel and the nut and leaf remnants. Like the other set components, spittoons underwent their own stylistic evolution. Early examples in the 17th century were generally small receptacles shaped like a hand-washing basin (see M.2000.47), while a common later shape seems to have been created essentially by joining the neck of a flat-bottomed hookah base to the neck of an inverted hookah base with a flared rim and lacking a base plate. The constricted waist formed by the junction facilitated grasping or carrying the spittoon.
This spittoon is made of conjoined hookah bases. Its decoration of inlaid silver sheet and silver wire features varying verdant vertical bands of poppy flowers and other blossoms atop tall foliate stems. Compared stylistically to a very similar spittoon (M.81.278.3), which is attributed to c. 1850 and displays stylized poppies in oval cartouches, the current cuspidor’s more chaotic, less formalized composition suggests a slightly later date of execution, probably in the second half of the 19th century.
- Selected Bibliography
- Sanfrani, Shehbaz H., ed. Golconda and Hyderabad. Bombay: Marg Publications, 1992.