The city of Madras 9now 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 1851, and began working with local Indian silversmiths. In 1860, 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
Freemasonry?
Madras, India, ca. 1910
Sterling Silver and Ivory
Freemasonry?
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.
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Hexagonal-Shape Tea Service with Elephant Spout
Madras, India, ca. 1890
Sterling silver
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.
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Claret Jug
P. Orr & Sons, Madras, India, ca. 1890
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.”
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George III Teapot
Peter Nicholas Orr, Madras, India, ca. 1851
Sterling silver
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)
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 and rosewood handle. The pot bears the hallmark of the Colonial silversmith George Gordon & Co., who had a workshop in Madras from 1841-1848.
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24-Piece Swami Fruit Service
Peter Nicholas Orr, Madras, India, ca. 1851
Sterling silver
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 andpâtés 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.”
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Two Swami Serving Spoons
Peter Nicholos Orr, Madras, India, ca. 1851
Sterling silver
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; each piece is unique, with different gods, symbols, and ornamentation on both spoons’ bowls and handles—the handle of one designed with the figure of Mutcha and a palm-tree motif, and the other, the figure of Rama, with an acanthus-leaf motif.
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Pair of Gilded Silver Salts with matching Spoons
P. Orr & Son, Madras, India, ca. 1890
Sterling silver with gold wash
P. Orr & Son, Madras, India, ca. 1890
Sterling silver with gold wash
Dimensions: 1 1/2 in. x 2 1/2 in. x 2 1/2 in, (3.81 x 5.35 x 6.35 cm), Spoons: 2 1/2 in. l (6.35 cm)
Weight: 5.4 oz. (153 grams)
This exceptional salts, in an unusual square form, have hooded cobras as their feet, with the cobras’ tails twisted into figure-8’s. Each side of the square bears three medallions, each of which encloses a deity holding a specific identifying attribute. The matching spoons are identical, with a line of flowers adorning the handles, culminating in the form of another deity, with the traditional P. Orr rectangular plaque at the feet of each. The gilding would have been done to obviate the need for a glass liner; the gilt inside would nor react to salt as silver would.
The salts and spoons are in their original P. Orr box, with custom-made mounts for both salts and spoons. Although neither the salts themselves nor the spoons are marked, there can be no doubt that they are by the renowned silversmith from Madras, P. Orr, because of the quality and style of the work and because of the maker’s stamp on the box’s lining. See photo for marking inside box.
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Swami Style Picture Frame
Madras, India, ca. 1890
Sterling Silver
Madras, India, ca. 1890
Sterling Silver
Dimensions: 10 3/4 in. x 7 1/2 in. (27.3 x 20 cm)
Picture Opening: 4 x 7 in. (10.2 x 17.8 cm)
Late–19th-century Indian Colonial silver picture frame, from Madras. This elaborately decorated piece of Swami silver depicts Krishna, Kartikya, Vishnu, Lakshmi, and various other apsaras and deities, set amid an almost-Kashmiri chinar-like leaf pattern and scrolling vines. The smooth-polished rim follows the form of the “frames” traditionally used on such pieces of swami silver (Wilkinson page 147), and a shield-form cartouche, inscribed with the name “Dianne,” is centered on the upper border. Although the well-known firm P. Orr and Sons was known for similar-style pieces, this piece is unmarked.
It is interesting to note that neither Wilkinson nor Vidya Dehejia mentions or depicts a single picture frame in any discussion of Indian silver.
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Parcel-gilt Silver Trophy
P. Orr & Son
Madras, India, ca. 1890
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. Therépoussé 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. Therépoussée technique is characteristically Indian, and the atelier undoubtedly had Indian craftsmen working side by side with British silversmiths.
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Large Serving Tray
P. Orr & Sons, ca. 1890
Madras, India
Sterling Silver
P. Orr & Sons, ca. 1890
Madras, India
Sterling Silver
Dimensions: 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)
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.
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Silver Tea Caddy
Madras, India, ca. 1855
Pure silver
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.)
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Milk Jug
Madras, India, ca. 1890
Sterling Silver
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.
