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Lot 255A
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Five 11th to 19th C. Indian Bronze & Brass Ritual Vessels
Five 11th to 19th C. Indian Bronze & Brass Ritual Vessels
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South Asia, India,, ca. 1000–1899 CE. A group of five small cast and turned vessels drawn from the Indian domestic shrine, gathered here in the warm spectrum of copper alloys, from a rosy footed cup to a spouted water pot, a decorated boat-form oil lamp, a diminutive spouted filler, and a tiny hexagonal dish on three feet. The footed cup is a low-zinc, copper-rich brass that gives it its reddish, almost golden cast, its bowl raised on a turned stem and splayed foot. The spouted water vessel carries a globular body, a flaring lipped mouth, and a long angled spout drawn from a leaded brass body. The largest of the decorated pieces is the lamp, a lozenge or leaf-shaped reservoir with a projecting wick channel, scrolled lugs to either side, and a raised back, its surface chased with the curling vegetal volutes that Indian metalworkers favored. The smallest pieces, the boat-form filler with its single pouring lip and the squat hexagonal dish on stubby legs, round out the set in plainer cast metal. Size of largest (oil lamp): 4.6" W x 1.1" H x 3.5" D (11.7 cm W x 2.8 cm H x 8.9 cm D).

Vessels of this scale and kind furnished the puja, the daily round of Hindu household worship. The footed cup is a kumkum or tilak holder, cradling the vermilion and turmeric pastes pressed to the brow in blessing. The spouted vessel (a kindi in the southern idiom, a lota in looser usage) poured consecrated water for ablution and offering. The oil lamp and its filler served the lighting of the flame that opens and closes devotion, the wick floating in oil within the leaf-shaped bowl while the smaller spouted vessel replenished it. The tiny tripod dish likely held a pinch of pigment, incense, or offering. Together they compose the modest metallic furniture of devotion, the objects a family touched every morning.

The alloys, read by XRF, tell their own quiet story of craft and economy. The decorated lamp alone is a true tin bronze, its copper carrying tin and lead in the proportions that let molten metal fill a fine mold and hold crisp ornament, the right choice for a piece meant to be looked at. The utilitarian wares, by contrast, are zinc brasses of varying purity, the everyday metal of the bazaar workshop, leaded for easier casting and turning. India was for centuries the world's foremost producer of metallic zinc, distilled at Zawar in Rajasthan long before European foundries mastered the trick, and these high-zinc brasses are the inheritors of that tradition. The trace of nickel in the water vessel and the antimony in the little hexagonal dish are the ordinary fingerprints of recycled and impure ores, the honest signature of metal melted, poured, and melted again across the long life of a working foundry.

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Item # 203436

  • Condition: Fair. Spout of oil lamp is broken with tip missing and base of oil lamp is rounded giving it a slight slant. All have surface wear and weathering commensurate with age. Otherwise, four are intact and all are very nice with rich patinas.

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by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

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$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
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