- Title
- Turban Ornament (sarpatti)
- Date Made
- circa 1850
- Medium
- Gold and gold foil over silver, green glass, green enamel, rock crystal insets, and pendant pearls with green glass beads
- Dimensions
- 1 3/8 x 3 7/8 x 1/8 in. (3.49 x 9.84 x 0.32 cm)
- Accession Number
- AC1995.16.2
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This turban ornament with its exquisite lace-like gold foil decoration is from the princedom of Pratapgarh (also spelled Partabgarh) in southern Rajasthan. It is fashioned in a distinctive technique termed thewa (setting) in which openwork gold foil is fused onto the surface of colored glass. The turban ornament has three major elements of horizontal oval plaques made of gilded silver. The plaques are inset with green glass faced with delicate pierced patterns of hunting scenes set against a background of flowering foliage made of chased gold foil. The back of the turban ornament is decorated with a translucent green enameled crisscross pattern and serrated leaf forms, the latter of which are fronted with rock crystal insets and hinged to accommodate the curve of the head.
Variant origins of the thewa technique have been postulated, but it is most often recounted as having been invented by the goldsmith Nathuni Sonewalla in 1767 while working under patronage of the Pratapgarh court. A wide range of thewa decorative objects were made in the 19th century, principally in Pratapgarh but also to a lesser extent in nearby Rutlam and Indore in Madhya Pradesh. The colored glass used in Pratapgarh works is characteristically green, whereas blue and red glass were also favored in Rutlam and Indore.
Pratapgarh plaques typically depict scenes in miniature of Europeans hunting wild game, as is the case here, or small iconic tableaux of Hindu mythology, especially Vishnu’s avatars or incarnations. Judging from the predominance of European figures and jewelry forms, particularly brooches and bracelets, much thewa work seems to have been intended for Western consumption, by both European travelers and as export ware for foreign markets. The traditional form of this turban ornament, however, suggests that it may have been created for indigenous use.
