Madras

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The city of Madras (now Chennai) was founded in the Raj Period, in 1644, as a strategic trading post for the British East India Company. Madras art and craft has been steeped in the Hindu tradition, and, consequently, the region is rich in its legacy of Hindu bronze sculptures and temple architecture. It was here that the renowned Scottish clocksmith P. Orr established his shop, in 1849, and began working with local Indian silversmiths. In 1863, his shop began hallmarking silver “P. Orr & Sons.” During the Raj Period, silver produced in Madras became known to the British as “Swami silver,” because of its decorative gods and other sacred festival themes.

Ivory and Silver 
Triangle Freemasonary?

Madras, India, ca. 1910

Sterling Silver and Ivory

Dimensions: 9 1⁄8 in. h (23.2 cm)

This ivory equilateral triangle measures 10 5/8 inches on a side, and each point of the triangle is adorned with a dancing Shiva. (Shiva of course is the deity of the eternal cycle of creation and destruction and is also known as the lord of the dance.) Although the dancing figures are reminiscent of Chola-period bronzes, the working of the leaves leans somewhat to the European style of leaves worked on contemporary Colonial and British pieces. The bottom line of the triangle allows for a semicircular interruption. The back is completely unadorned, the silver points being smooth and unincised.

Banner_History_of_Freemasonry

And now for the big question: What is it? The silver work is typical of Madras style. Michael Backman, in London, has suggested that the triangle might be related to some ritual of freemasonry, which theory would support with the Shiva theme of creation/destruction. Further supporting this theory is the knowledge that Freemasonry had existed in Madras since 1752.

There are other possibilities. Is the semicircle at the bottom to do with form or function? Was it some sort of carpenter’s measure or sailor’s navigation device? One can only speculate, but the object is beautiful in the purity of its design—the ornate silverwork contrasting sharply with the simplicity of the ivory form, a marriage of East and West, and a thing of beauty does not need another purpose than its beauty to justify its existence.

 

A Rare Indian Colonial Silver after Ancient

Herculaneum Askos

Gorge Gordon & Co., Madras, India, ca. 1840

Sterling silver

Dimension: 9 1/2 in. high (24 cm)
Weight:       52 oz. (1,70 Grams) 

The word askos, from the ancient Greek, originally meant a wineskin. It has come to be used for another vessel, one used to pour small quantities of oil and other liquids. Such vessels are known by their flat shape and a spout, at either or both ends, that could also be used as a handle. Such an askos was usually pottery, painted decoratively and mainly used for storing oil for lamps. They were produced mainly in Attica, Etruria, and Memphis, and extensively traded in and around Greece and the Mediterranean region.

This askos, of typical form, has a finely textured lobate body above an inscribed rim foot. The foliate handle has two ivory insulators, and it rises from an applied winged figure at its base to a leaf-shaped thumbpiece Two goats adorn the rim, and there is a hinged cover, while the inside of the vessel is parcel gilt.

The original askos upon which all eighteenth-century copies are based, is of bronze, of an ancient Roman design, the original having been found at Herculaneum in 1709, in the discovery of Pompeii. It had been buried in the volcanic eruption since A.D. 79. Systematic excavation began there in 1738, and many of the relics found there are now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. (Herculaneum has several frescos and mosaics showing slaves serving wine to their masters in similar vessels.)

Left to right (not in scale):

1.Original Askos at National Archaeological Museum of Naples;

2.Oomersee Mawji’s drawing at British Museum, London;

3. Oomersee Mawji’s Askos;  4. George Gordon’s Askos.  

The example here is probably a copy of one made in the mid-1830s, by Storr & Mortimer (workshop of Paul Storr) and exported to India. Similarly, Oomersee Mawji did a pencil drawing and a silver replica of the Herculaneum askos, (drawing by OM is in the British Museum, 2011, 3014.140), and created several replicas of Pompeii silver for the Maharao of Kutch. One of the replica of the Pompeii kantharos, and the Herculaneum askos by Mawji are part of this collection. (See Kutch section of this blog). 

George Gordon & Co. was a silversmith in Madras between about 1821 and 1848. His was a family business that had been begun by Hugh Gordon, son of James Gordon, a silversmith in Aberdeen.

Hugh Gordon moved to Madras in 1792, and, the following year, opened his silversmithing shop, the beginning of one of the most important dynasties of colonial silversmiths in Madras in the nineteenth century.

In 1821, Hugh’s grandson, George Gordon, founded the company George Gordon & Co. in partnership with his brother Robert Gordon III, John Law, and Andrew Barron (the last of whom died there on 15 July 1832). The company produced silverware in the Regency, or Georgian, style, which, at the time in Madras, sometimes featured traditional Indian design and iconography and retailed to wealthy British citizens and Indian aristocrats.

Although George Gordon retired to the U.K. in the 1830s, the firm continued operating as Gordon & Co. in Madras, until 1848, using the maker’s mark “GG&Co.”  The base of the askos is inscribed:

Presented to J. Sanderson Esqre.

by W. E. Cochrane Esqre.

In the Madras Exhibition of 1855, two of the exhibitors mentioned on the same page of the Official and Descriptive Catalogue are:

J. Sanderson, Esq.,

Medical Establishment (class CLVIII)

1 Piece of Kyabokka wood

and

W.E. Cochrane, Esq., Civil Service (class XLIV)

1 Specimen of Photography.

J. Sanderson was Dr. James Sanderson (1812-1895), a native of Dunbar, Scotland, who was a medical student at Edinburgh University. In 1836, he was appointed surgeon in the Madras Medical Service. He returned to Scotland in 1863 and died in 1891.

W.E. Cochrane, in 1853, was a sub-collector at Salem in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. According to John Falconer, Cochrane was born in 1816 and educated at Haileybury. He worked in India, where he became a noted amateur photographer and an early member of the Photographic Society of Madras. He died in Madras on 8 May 1861  

Hexagonal-Shape Tea Service with Elephant Spout

Madras, India, ca. 1890

Sterling silver

Dimensions: 
Teapot – 8 3/4 in. handle to spout

(22.22 cm), 6 1/4 in. h (15.9 cm)

Tea Service Total Weight: 38 oz. (1077.28 grams)

This breathtaking, hexagonal-shape tea service was made in Madras, in the southeastern region of India. It is uniquely designed; the hexagonal shape is almost never encountered in Indian colonial silver. The silver work shows various Hindu deities carved in exceptionally crisp, high relief, and is referred to as “Swami” style (Wilkinson, p. 146), after the Hindu term for idols. The famed Madras firm of P. Orr & Sons was renowned for Swami design. (See Wilkinson, p. 154, which illustrates work sheets for a ca.-1875 P. Orr jug, with a handle identical to the one on this teapot.)

The pieces in this service exhibit brilliantly répoussé and chased scenes of deities in various dance, meditative, and warlike positions. Each figure is distinct from the others, and is carved sharply, in high relief from the surface. One of the figures represented is Matsya, the fish incarnation of Lord Vishnu, shown with a multiheaded, waving fan. Another image is of Garuda, the vehicle of Vishnu, who is portrayed near the elephant spout of the teapot. Yet another deity wields a slender, curved sword and is shown in a fierce, warriorlike posture.

A center panel depicts a tall plum tree, which is a design theme found more often in Chinese export pieces than in Indian silver, and further decorations are raised, shield-form medallions. The teapot lid closes flush to its base. The piece has never been monogrammed.

Swami-ornamented silver was highly acclaimed at a 1875 exhibition for the Prince of Wales, who was presented with a Swami-style tea service—perhaps much like this one—and other similarly decorated items.

A Gift from the King of Siam:
Monumental Trophy Cup and Cover

Attributed to Peter Orr

Madras, India, ca. 1863

Sterling Silver

Height: 27 in. (66 cm)
Width: 18 1/8 x 9 in. (46 x 23 cm)
Weight: 155 oz.  (4,395 grams)

Yes, that king of Siam—the king who inherited the throne of a “closed” kingdom, but who opened his country to reforms and modern development, the king whose tolerance and open-mindedness helped him deal with Western imperialists—in fact, the very king who hired a certain Englishwoman, by the name of Anna Leonowens, to educate his courtiers about Western culture, the king of Margaret Landon’s Anna and the King of Siam and the subsequent theatrical production The King and I. Research indicates that this monumental and quite spectacular piece was commissioned in Madras, as a gift from King Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama IV (r. 1862 to 1867), to a former Kassel, Germany, state library director by the name of Glässer. The provenance of the piece explains the unusual mix of Thai and Indian iconography. 

Although the piece is not hallmarked or signed, it is unmistakably by the great silversmith Peter Orr, of Madras, known for his extravagantly designed and expensively commissioned pieces, since there were no other shops in the region considered capable of so skillfully executing such a work of silver.

What makes the cup particularly interesting is its mingling of two nation's iconography. The cup's handles are modeled after the mythical long-tailed dragons that are called, in India, Naga, and and play a large part in Thai iconography. The Naga were fearsome, sometimes multiheaded, serpent- or dragon-like creatures; they were often placed as guardians at temple entrances. The Naga arrived in the largely Buddhist Thailand via Hinduism, where they were embraced by the Thais. They are mentioned in the great Indian epic Mahabharats in less than glowing terms, although they are mentioned more favorably elsewhere.  

The borders of the cup itself are beaded. On the pedestal of the cup, there is an overlapping leaf pattern, complemented by a band of circular-framed deities.

The body of the cup is profusely decorated with exquisite repoussé representations of a religious procession of men carrying idols, typical scenes from the Meenakshi Amman Temple in south India. The finial of the cup’s cover depicts Krishna playing a flute.

Indian silver depicting deities and religious processions is inspired by the bas-reliefs on the famous temples in southern India, a style known as “Swami silver,” depicting Hindu deities. See: Wynyard R. T. Wilkinson’s Indian Silver 1858-1947.

The firm of Pater Orr was founded, in 1849, by a watchmaker originally from Edinburg. It became famous as “P. Orr & Sons” in 1863. The firm is particularly known for its aforementioned “Swami silver,” Although the iconography is certainly both Indian and Thai, the overall design of the piece is reminiscent of the impressive pieces P. Orr & Sons produced in the Victorian style, many of which are now to be found in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. (The Maharao Gaekwar of Baroda, the Maharajah of Holkar, and the Maharajah of Cochin all commissioned impressive silver pieces from Pater Orr to present to the Prince of Wales during his visit to India in 1875-76.
  
Although the cup’s silver quantity is unmarked, acid testing shows it to be 900+ silver.

Provenance: Pushkin Antiques Ltd., London, UK.

Indian Colonial Sterling Silver Trophy Cup and Cover

Gordon & Co., ca. 1832
Madras, India
Sterling Silver

Dimensions: 
Height:   18 1/8 in. (46 cm)
Width:  14 3/8 x 9 1/4 in. (36.5 x 23.5cm)
Weight:  137 oz. (3,885 grams)

This exceptional presentation trophy cup’s campaña-shaped body rests on a circular, stepped-foot base decorated with flowers and scrolling foliage. The body itself is decorated with two bands of different motifs—one, a band of grapevines and fruit set against a matte background; the other, adorned with scrolls alternating with fine and crisply rendered elephant and tiger heads.

The cup’s large, double-scroll handles are surmounted by tigers, and the matching cover, with a cast finial modeled as a horse, also bears scrolling foliage. The interior is richly gilded.

The design is unique, in that it blends elements of Regency-Period cups made by such royal silversmiths as Paul Storr, Benjamin Smith, and Robert Garrard, with Colonial elements derived from the Indian culture.

The piece was created to be presented as a trophy for a horserace held in Bangalore in 1832. One side bears the original inscription:

This Cup value 1000 Rupees

was given by the Officers of the 7th Light Cavalry

to be run for the BANGALORE Races in November 1832

Free for all Arab Horses

weight for Age and Inches, 14 Hands and Aged_

Carrying_8 Stone_10 lbs_

Heats_2 Miles Won by Beating

The other side is inscribed for a later presentation relating to the coronation of George VI: 

This Cup was run for again in Madras on December 15th 1937

To Commemorate The Coronation of King George the Sixth

Won by "Old Fogey," The property of the Lady Marjorie Erskine.

The base bears the hallmark “GG & Co,” for George Gordon & Co, one of the most important dynasties of silversmiths active in Madras since the early 19th Century (see Wilkinson 1987, p.71). George Gordon was later under the partnership of Peter Orr and Alexander Orr (1845-1848), who later founded the firm P. Orr & Sons. This cup, dating as it does from 1832, is a particularly early example of this quality of Indian Colonial silver, and it is believed to be the largest and heaviest such piece that has ever come up for sale. The only piece even comparable, in terms of workmanship and blended English and Indian design is a soup tureen by P. Orr & Sons, made in 1855, acquired by the Indian Museum in the same year, but now part of the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (London).

Provenance: Pushkin Antiques Ltd., London, UK.

Burmese Teapot with Birds and Hedgehog

P. Orr & Sons
Madras, India, ca. 1865

Sterling silver

Dimensions:   6 1/2 in. high (16.5 cm) 
                       5 1/2 in, deep (14 cm) 
                      10 1/4 in. spout to handle (26 cm) 
Weight:          40 oz. (1,120 gram) 

This extraordinary and magnificent silver teapot is in the Burmese style, in spite of its having been designed by the Madras silversmith Peter Orr. It has a domed lid with a hedgehog finial, and the spout is a stunningly designed bird with wings on each side. The handle of the piece is comprised of two figures, one standing on the shoulders of the other, the bottom of the two, with a tail. (Collectors will recognize that the style of these figures is “Swami,” for which Madras silver—particularly Madras silver by Peter Orr—is known.) The handle is in the form of two ogres; the spout, the form of a hin-tha; and the lid’s finial, a Burmese lady in traditional garb. (See additional mythological references below.)

The teapot’s superb, high-relief, chased figures are rendered against a textured background and chased leaves and flowers. A band of leaves adorns the base, and the whole stands on four legs with lion-paw feet. The quality of the chasing is exceptional and absolutely pristine, the faces and other high points’ being in their original crisp condition.

Some additional notes re the iconic Burmese references:

In Myanmar, the Hintha is also a symbol of the ancient Myanmar city of Bago (Pegu) and of the Mon people.

The Burmese mythological bird/duck Hintha is derived from the Mon people’s legend of ‘s having flown over the location of present-day Pegu. Upon his looking down, he is said to have seen two golden sheldrake birds, the female atop the male bird, the male atop a small rock. From this vision, the Buddha predicted that a great city would develop in that location, and the spot is marked today by the beautiful Hinthagone Pagoda.

Another legend, the Shan legend, relates that a tilanka, a giant bird, carried a pregnant queen from her home, near where the Buddha was born, to a faraway forest, where she gave birth to a boy child. The child was later presented by the spirits with a magic harp, which he played to lead all the elephants in the forest back to the place where the bird had found his mother. The child eventually became king, and named the kingdom “Muang Mao,” mao meaning “dizzy,” to recall his mother’s feeling of dizziness when the bird carried her up into the air.

The Hintha, or Hamsa, bird figure was often used to decorate Burmese opium weights. [See http://goldentriangleantiques.com/burmese-wood-carving-of-mythological-bird-hintha/.]

Art Nouveau Silver Cup, or Goblet

P. Orr & Sons, Madras & Rangoon, ca. 1880
Sterling silver

Dimensions: 8 in. high (20.5 cm)

weight: 12.5 oz. (356 gram)

This silver goblet, which was in all likelihood meant to be engraved as a sporting trophy, is classic art nouveau design. Was the lotus theme a reference by the smith to the Buddhism practiced in Rangoon (now Yangon), in Burma, and in parts of India? Perhaps, but those familiar with Western art nouveau silver know that Louis Comfort Tiffany embraced the lotus design for much of his silver and many of his stained-glass lamps. Perhaps, then, the design borrowed from the East by American and European designers had its homecoming in the flowing lines of the lotus motifs that decorate this exceptionally beautiful piece.

Claret Jug

P. Orr & Sons, Madras, India, ca. 1890

Dimensions: 10 ¼ in. high (26.6 cm)

weight: 21.7 oz. (615 gram)

This claret jug, executed to the English taste and possibly made for export, has the slender neck and hinged cover of the traditional claret jug, with the handle cast as a hooded cobra that is responding to the seated snake charmer that is the finial on the lid. The body bears a horizontal chased band of Hindu deities enclosed within circular cartouches. The hallmark is “ORR & Sons, Madras.”

See identical claret jug in Wilkinson, Indian Silver, 1858-1947, p. 156.

Two George III Teapots

Madras, India, ca. 1830

Sterling silver

Dimensions:

11 in. handle to spout (27.9 cm)  

6 1/2 in. H (16.5 cm)

Weight: 26 oz. (737­ grams)

A fine classic George III teapot with ivory finial for insulator and rosewood handle. The pot bears the hallmark of the Colonial silversmith George Gordon & Co., who had a workshop in Madras from 1841-1848.

 

 

 

Dimensions: 12 1/2 in. handle to spout 

                     (31.75 cm)  

                     6 in. H (15.25 cm)

Weight:         39.58 oz. (1,094 grams)

This George III teapot with three ivory insulators, one on the lid and two on the handle. Hallmark of AGS is stamped twice at the bottom.

 

 
 

 

 

 

24-Piece Swami Fruit Service

Peter Nicholas Orr, Madras, India, ca. 1851

Sterling silver

Forks: 7 3/8 in. l (18.73 cm)

Knives: 8 1/2 in. l (21.59 cm)

Total Weight: 48 oz. (1,360.77 grams)

A very fine antique fruit service by Peter Orr, consisting of 12 forks and 12 knives, each of which is engraved and hand chased with different scenes of Hindu gods and Indian life, animals, and plants. Each piece’s design is completely unique; no design is repeated. 

Because of the elaborate dinners served in Europe and Colonial India at the time this service was made, different cutlery, plates, and wine glasses were required for each of twelve or thirteen different courses. A formal dinner might include an appetizer; a clear soup; a thick soup; joints of meat followed by whole fish, each with its own vegetables; timbales and pâtés with delicate sauces; a salad course; a cheese selection; a hot or cold dessert course; a hot (stewed) fruit course; and, finally, a cold fruit course, the last, the course that required a fruit service such as this beautifully designed set.

The set has been maintained in its original, fitted oak case (the case, in fair condition), with a brass cartouche on the lid, never engraved. The silver is an excellent example of the fine quality of work produced by the Peter Orr the elder (as manifest by the hallmark “Orr,” rather than “P. Orr and Sons”).

Dehejia (Delight in Design, 2008, pp. 108–11) illustrates a full ninety-two–piece silver cutlery set, signed “P. Orr & Sons of Madras,” which she attributes to 1875. A similar set, says Dehejia, was presented by the Maharajah of Cochin to His Royal Highness Edward Albert, Prince of Wales. She quotes a June 1876 London Times report that says the set “is so elegant in design and finished in workmanship that no inconsistency is seen in the application of . . . [Indian] ornamentation to European forms.”

 

Two Swami Serving Spons

Peter Nicholos Orr, Madras, India, ca. 1851

Sterling silver

Dimensions: 8 3/8 in. l (21 cm)

Total weight: 5.33 oz. (166­ grams)

Two very beautiful antique silver spoons by Peter Orr, each is engraved and hand chased with Indian deities. As was customary for Peter Orr's silver flatware, each piece is unique, with different gods, symbol, and ornamentation on both spoon's bowls and handles–the handle of one designed with the figure of Mutcha and palm-tree motif, and the other, the figure of Rama, with an acanthus-leaf motif.

See identical spoons in Wilkinson, Indian Silver, 1858-1947, p. 159.

Provenance: Britannia Collectables Ltd., Derbyshire, UK

 

 

Parcel-gilt Silver Trophy

P. Orr & Son
Madras, India, ca. 1890 

Dimensions: 4 5/8 in. cup; 57⁄8 in. cup and base. (11.5 cm cup; 15 cm cup and base)

Weight: 22.8 oz. (646 grams, cup without base) 

This fine Indian parcel-gilt silver trophy is designed with a gadrooned body terminating in a bottom knob in the shape of an artichoke. 

 

 

The répoussé and chased decoration of the bowl’s underside is composed of vertical ribs, the bombé portion of the bowl adorned with elaborate floral medallions within niches, and the convex neck circled by a scrolling foliate vine. The cup’s neck has twin gilt handles on either side, which are supported by a pair of fierce, maned and scaled lionlike animals, and extending down to a circular silver base. Since the inside of the cup is gilded, a view of the cup from above reveals a radiant sunlike monstrance design. The piece is mounted on a circular wooden base, and mounted with a silver plaque inscribed “Winners.” The cup is in its original, fitted wood case.

This is an important piece, beautifully designed, unusually gilded, with attention given to every detail, and combining Indian motifs with British form. It was made in the atelier of the acclaimed Colonial silversmith P. Orr, the “& Sons” indicating it was fabricated some time after 1860. The répoussée technique is characteristically Indian, and the atelier undoubtedly had Indian craftsmen working side by side with British silversmiths.

Large Serving Tray

P. Orr & Sons, ca. 1890

Madras, India

Sterling Silver

Size: 22 in., handle to handle x 14 ½  in. w x 1 ½ in. h (55.8 x 36.8 cm)

Weight: 65.1 oz. (1,850 grams)

This large, engraved, footed silver tray, by the Colonial silversmith Peter Nicholas Orr. When Orr first began executing his silver pieces in India, his work looked as if it might have come from England or Scotland, and, indeed, this is such a piece. Later on in his career, when he began to employ local Indian silversmiths, his pieces show the influence of Indian silversmithing, albeit on pieces with English forms. 

 

Silver Tea Caddy

Madras, India, ca. 1855

Pure silver

Dimensions: 3 in. h, 2 3/4 in. diam.

(7.6 cm h, 7 cm diam.)

Weight: 4.89 oz. (138.7 gram)­

A pure-silver, Indian, lidded, circular tea caddy, with finely detailed hand-worked répoussé and chased mountainous landscape pictorial of a palace and havelis amid palms and other trees. The lid is adorned with a floral foliate design and the entwined monogram “CHR.” The box is marked “T.100” on the underside, for 100 percent, unalloyed, pure silver, which is unusual for ornamental pieces. (“Sterling silver” is 92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent alloy metal, usually copper.)

Milk Jug

Madras, India, ca. 1890

Sterling Silver

Dimensions: 
Bowl 4 1/2 in. diam., 3 3/8 in. h

(11.5 diameter, 8.5 cm high)

Weight: 7.4 oz. (210 grams)

This 19th-century Indian sterling-silver milk jug has been created with a spherical body, but with a banded area that is chased, then applied to the smooth body of the jug, leaving a slight (invisible) space in between. An elephant head and trunk form the jug’s handle. The jug is further decorated with embossing and chasing, with the chased band depicting Rama, Sita, and Lukshman being borne in a carriage. The inside of the jug is smooth, and the whole jug is in excellent condition.

Both the Gaekwar of Baroda and the Maharajah of Indore presented P. Orr tea services featuring swami work to the Prince of Wales. The Maharajah of Cochin presented him with a dessert service. Soon, a line of swami jewelery also came to fashion.

Raja Ravi Varma was the source of inspiration from 1884 onward, when his oleographic press began churning out prints of his art works. P. Orr produced silver articles such as tea caddies, milk jugs, and teapots with the Ravi Varma painting of Saraswathi depicted on them. Swami silver had come full circle.

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