Sandalwood Document Box

Library, Dublin, where Jahangir is seen with an animal-headed kard. 1

The kard is also depicted in paintings of the Akbar period, suggesting that it is an early style and size of weapon for which Jahangir retained affection. Two paintings from the Johnson Album in the British Library that date from the reign of Akbar show the courtiers Khvajagi Muhammad Husain, circa 1595, and CAbd al-Rahim Khar, circa 1600, each carrying a kard suspended from the sash.2

Further pictorial evidence suggesting that kards were fashionable during the reigns of Akbar and Jahangir, is provided in a painting of circa 1630 by Govardhan from the Kevorkian Album now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, depicting “Akbar with a Lion and a Calf”. In this painting, a sheep’s head kard is suspended from the emperor’s sash.3

Despite this pictorial evidence, most surviving jade kards including the present knife seem to date from the mid to late seventeenth century. Though Carvalho cites several early seventeenth century paintings as evidence of Jahangir’s fondness of the kard, he does not date the Khalili knife to the Jahangir period but gives a more general date of seventeenth century. Carvalho also mentions a knife with a jade hilt in a private German collection that has been given a date of circa 1640-1660.

Combining Carvalho’s dating of the Khalili kard and his pictorial analysis of knives in miniature paintings, with Kauokji’s dates of the first half of the seventeenth century that she assigns to the al-Sabah kards, we arrive at a mid-century date of circa 1650 for the present knife.

Provenance: Private European Collection

References: 1. Both are illustrated in Amina Okada, Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court, 1992, p. 168, no. 201 and p. 43, no. 43. 2. J. P. Losty and Malini Roy, Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire, 2012, pp. 77-78, figs. 38 and 39. 3. Stuart Cary Welch, Annemarie Schimmel, Marie L. Swietochowski and Wheeler M. Thackston, The Emperors’ Album: Images of Mughal India, 1987, pp. 96-97, pl. 9.

38

SANDALWOOD AND IVORY PRESENTATION CASKET

india (surat), dated 1935

heiGht: 11 cm Width: 41.5 cm

depth: 17 cm

This beautifully proportioned and exquisitely decorated sandalwood and ivory presentation casket, made by the firm of S. C. Feticarai in Surat, is a compendium of Indian wood carving and inlay decorative techniques. It is also a remarkable historical document, showing the many-layered connections between leading members of the British establishment in the last decades of the Raj, and the vast subcontinent of India that was soon to gain Independence from the United Kingdom on 15th August 1947 and partitioned into India and Pakistan. Both the fascinating family provenance of the casket and its decoration show these connections at a point in time just before the final withdrawal of the British.

The casket was commissioned by the Godhra City Municipality in Panchmahal, Gujarat, and presented as a ceremonial gift of honour on 21st December 1935 to Michael Knatchbull, 5th Baron Brabourne (1895-1939), who was the Governor of Bombay from 1930-1937 and thus during his tenure. From 1937-1939, Lord Brabourne was the Governor of Bengal, and for a short period from 25th June to 22nd October 1938, he was the Acting Viceroy and Governor-General of India.

The casket is of elegant elongated form, with a hinged chamfered lid secured by case clips and locked by a steel key. It stands on four silver clawed feel that bring the box to life by imparting an animal vigour while robustly animating the profile. This was an excellent decision on the part of the cabinet-makers as without the clawed feet on which the casket stands it would have been a more staid affair. The sandalwood panels are carved in relief with scrolling vines and leaves in which are perched confronted peacocks. Though the peacock was not officially declared the national bird of India until 1963, it is deeply bound to the history and culture of India and associated with various gods through the millennia; it is thus a potent symbol of the subcontinent and a much-loved decorative motif. The sandalwood panels are framed by micro-mosaic in the sadeli technique, composed of tiny pieces of alternating ivory, ebony and gleaming tortoiseshell inlaid in intricate geometric patterns including a zig-zag chevron band on the sloping shoulder of the lid.

Three recessed medallions with raised carving in relief to the centre decorate the lid. At the centre is an oval image of the Taj Mahal. On the right, looking in to survey the monument is Queen Victoria, the former Empress of India. On the left is a portrait of King George V, facing the viewer in three-quarter profile. George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and the Emperor of India from 6th May 1910 until his death in 1936, one year after this box was made. He was therefore the ruling monarch of India when this box was presented to Lord Brabourne in 1935. As Knatchbull himself died in 1939, this casket and what it signifies mark a poignant and moving end to an era during the fading twilight years of the Raj.

On the interior of the lid is a silver plaque engraved, “Presented by Godhra City Municipality on 21st December 1935 to His Excellency The Right Honourable Micheal [sic] Herbert Rudolf Knatchbull. Lord Brabourne, G.C.I.E., M.C. Governor of Bombay.” The casket encloses a printed silk scroll that documents the occasion of the presentation with a salutary message; the borders are worked with gold thread and ornamented with a wax pendant seal. On the bottom of the casket is a printed maker’s mark.

Though the casket is a nexus in time, its history continues and expands with multiple connections even after the death of Knatchbull in 1939, for his son the film producer John Knatchbull, the 7th Baron Brabourne, who inherited the title

from his brother Norton the 6th Baron Brabourne who died in 1943, married Lady Patricia Mountbatten, later 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, in 1946.

Patricia (14th February 1924-13th June 2017) was the eldest daughter of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Viceroy and GovernorGeneral of India from 21st February 1947 to 15th August 1947, and after Independence, Governor-General of India until 21st June 1948. Patricia, her younger sister Pamela and their mother Edwina, the 1st Countess Mountbatten of Burma and last Vicereine of India, were all together with Lord Mountbatten in India during the critical period of India’s history. On their wedding day of 26th October 1946 at Romney Abbey, Patricia’s bridesmaids were Princess Elizabeth (she was third cousin to the Queen), Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra and her sister Pamela, who became Lady Pamela Hicks upon her marriage to the celebrated society decorator David Hicks.

This glittering family history took a tragic turn in August 1979 when her father Lord Mountbatten was assassinated on his boat which was blown up by the IRA off the shore of Mullaghmore, County Sligo. Lady Patricia was on the boat and she survived, but the tragedy took away her father, her son Nicholas and her mother-in-law, Doreen Knatchbull, the Dowager Baroness Brabourne, the wife of the 5th Lord Brabourne, Michael Knatchbull, to whom this box was presented so long ago in 1935 in Godhra. This Anglo-Indian casket is therefore through both decoration and ownership, a powerful symbol of the interconnected history between great British families and their once empire of India.

Provenance:

Presented to Michael Knatchbull, 5th

Baron Brabourne (1895–1939) during his tenure as Governor of Bombay (1930-1937) Patricia Knatchbull, 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma