Indian Silver Hunting Bowl, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
I know it's silver, I know it's about 50 years old, and it's from India.
APPRAISER:
And how did it make its way all the way here?
GUEST:
I believe my mom got it from India.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And it was in the family.
APPRAISER:
Did she use it ever?
GUEST:
I put flowers in there.
APPRAISER:
You put flowers in it.
GUEST:
But not... fake flowers, not real ones.
APPRAISER:
Sometimes, these bowls are called rose bowls. They would be filled with water and roses would be decorated on the top and they would float in them and they'd be used for ceremonies and things like that. It's a very large silver bowl. It is made in India, probably in Lucknow.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So North India in Uttar Pradesh, near Nepal.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
The reason why we can attribute this to a Lucknow maker is because of the decorative scheme we see on it. And these are sometimes known as hunting bowls or hunting scene bowls or jungle scene bowls. And we have a great number of really wonderful, vibrant kind of images and actions that are going on, so we've got hunters and elephants and lots of tigers and leopards. It is beautifully worked all the way around. It is completely hand-made. It would have been a single sheet of silver which would have been hammered and then rolled up and then repoussèd and chased like this. So it's pushed out from the inside, and then it's chased and sort of pushed back in. And the quality of work is really, really stunning, I think. So it dates to around 1900, so I think it's a little bit older than you suggested. I mean, you said maybe it's 50 years old, but this sort of bowl was being made around 1880 to 1910 in Lucknow in India. The wonderful leaves on the underside of this bowl are quite reminiscent of kind of acanthus leaves that you might find on an English bowl. And so there were, obviously, during the Raj period, the sort of mid-19th to the mid-20th century, a number of silversmiths from England working in India, and they would have influenced Indian silver-makers and sort of they would have shared knowledge and things like that. It doesn't have a signature underneath.
GUEST:
Yeah, it doesn't, I didn't see anything.
APPRAISER:
Some makers marked their wares, others didn't. I don't think the fact that it has no mark is going to be an issue, because there was no real rigid hallmarking system in India.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
So how much do you think this is worth?
GUEST:
At least $1,000?
APPRAISER:
And what's that sort of based on, your $1,000?
GUEST:
The silver value.
APPRAISER:
My feeling is that this would be fairly high silver content, so it'd probably be at least sterling, it could even be higher than sterling silver, so... If you were to sort of melt this down, which I think would be quite tragic in a way, it would be worth maybe a bit more than $1,000, maybe something like $1,500 to $2,000.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Is it something that you would ever sell, or would you keep it in the family?
GUEST:
I would like to keep it in the family.
APPRAISER:
Okay, I think in that case, for insurance...
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
…have to put a figure of around $10,000 on it.
GUEST:
$10,000?
APPRAISER:
Yes.
GUEST:
Thank you.
APPRAISER:
If this bowl was to come up for auction, I think it would sell for between $4,000 and $6,000.
GUEST:
Okay. My mom will be very happy to know.
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