Mid 18th Century Mughal Emperors,

Delhi, India

Painting 108 x 80 mm.;

frame 270 x 202 mm.

A Mughal emperors princess mumtaz, a consort of one of the Mughal Emperors, seated on a terrace, smoking a hookah Delhi, circa 1860-70 gouache and gold on ivory, oval, in a profusely carved wood frame, on an easel stand painting 108 x 80 mm.; “Ebony frame 270 x 202 mm. 

The hookah (from the Hindustani word huqqa) is a device used for smoking tobacco filtered through water. The tobacco is often flavoured or sweetened with honey and spices to make the smoke more palatable. Reflecting its long history, the hookah goes by many other names, including shisha from the Turkish, qalyan or nargil from the Persian and hubble-bubble from British colonial India. The origin of the hookah is contested, but the story goes that in 1604 an emissary of the Mughal Emperor Akbar (1542–1605) returned to court with some tobacco leaves and pipes, probably introduced by Portuguese merchants. But the emperor’s personal physician, Abul-Fath Gilani, was concerned about the effects of smoking tobacco and devised the hookah as a way to filter the smoke. 

BONHAMS London UK, previously Sold by Fakir Chand and Rughnath Das,as “Tag reference on the back, Delhi (their label on the reverse of frame, price Rs. 20), late 19th/early 20th Century Private UK collection.

The items within this lot containing ivory have been registered in accordance with the Ivory Act (Section 10), reference no. P7DDZW7H.