This partially colored drawing of a woman emerging from the mouth of a curved makara, a mythical Indian aquatic creature, is an accomplished design for a powder primer flask, a container for the priming powder used with early muskets. Powder primer flasks were created in a wide variety of media and forms, including ivory, jade, nautilus shells, ibex horns, and wood. Ivory primer flasks fashioned in the shape of an antelope and decorated with lively hunting scenes are significant for being among the earliest Mughal decorative objects known to have reached Europe.
This design would likely have been for a painted wood powder primer flask, with the woman holding the orb (possibly referring to a musket ball) functioning as the stopper. Extant powder primer flasks made in the form of a curved makara similar to this drawing were popular in Gujarat and Rajasthan in the 19th century. See also M.76.2.9a-b, M.81.140, M.83.218.6, and AC1992.36.1.
Designs of martial and other decorative art objects were drawn by leading Mughal and Rajput painters. They provide important documentation of the interconnectivity of the decorative and pictorial arts; for example, note the exquisitely rendered floral motifs embellishing the body of the flask. Some designs functioned as artists’ models, while others were intended as illustrations for sales catalogues.
