CALCUTTA - AN INDIAN WINE GLASS COVER
INDISTINCTLY MARKED, POSSIBLY HAMILTON & CO. OF CALCUTTA, 20TH CENTURY
Estimate: £300 - £500
Auction: The Fiona Buchanan Indian Silver Collection | Wednesday 4th March at 10am
Description
Of circular outline to a sweeping stylised knopped finial, engraved R to the rim, the underside engraved 24/25. XII.1921
Dimensions
11cm diameter, 99g
Footnote
Glass covers were essential in India for alfresco dining Lady Charlotte Canning (1817-1861), the first Vicerine of India wrote extensive diaries of her time there, which now serve as an invaluable source for Indian life during the British Raj. Her diaries now form part of the British Libraries collection, India Office Private Papers: Mss Eur F699, Papers of Charles Canning and Charlotte Canning, Earl and Countess Canning.
In a letter to the Queen Lady Canning describes her surroundings;
‘The greenness of Bengal surprised me even at first. Now it is quite dazzling the beauty of the rank & gigantic foliage is indescribable.’ Your Majesty once pitied me for the heat & the insects I should encounter. At the beginning of the rains sometimes the dinner table was covered with thousands of insects of all kinds as thick as in the drawers of a collection. Silver covers had to be put on all the glasses & it was really a curious sight.’
The Prince of Wales' tour of India in 1921 followed the devastation of the First World War and the recent induction of Mahatma Gandhi to the Indian National Congress. It therefore proved to be a challenging tour which lasted four months in India. Departing Portsmouth in October, he travelled around India from Bombay to Calcutta and then from Madras to Karachi.
It was during this time that this glass cover was most likely used at the banquet for the Prince of Wales whilst staying in Calcutta. Engraved to the underside 24/25. XII.1921, the banquet held on Christmas eve, marks an important turning point in Indian and British rule history. The glass cover seen here illustrates the minute detail of the Prince’s Royal Tour and more pertinently the cost which was seen as a contributing factor to the demise of relations between India and British rule. The Prince did recognise this and proposed a meeting with Gandhi on the condition that he call off a hartal (the closure of shops and offices as a protest or a mark of sorrow) planned for the Prince’s arrival in Calcutta. However, Gandhi refused.
The Royal Collection in their collection holds images of this trip and his arrival into the town RCIN 2702482.