Cleveland Museum of Art
Hookah Bowl
- Date
- 1700s
- Medium
- glass
- Culture
- India, Mughal
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
The inscription around the body of the base speaks to the use of the hookah in the decadent life of the Mughal court. The hookah is commended for being a proper, refined servant who will not “respond unless drawn upon” or, produce water bubbles when smoke is drawn through the hose. Undoubtedly the witty, poetic allusions would have been appreciated at banquets and other courtly gatherings. The use of wheel-cut glass for this hookah base may have been influenced by English glass and lead crystal that was exported to India Around the top of this hookah bowl are incised the opening two lines from the Khamsa (Quintet) of the celebrated Persian poet Nizami (1141–1209).
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.
Hookah Base
Cleveland Museum of Art
Hookah Base
Cleveland Museum of Art
Base for a water pipe
Minneapolis Institute of Art
A mendicant bowing before a holy man, from the Prince Salim Album
Cleveland Museum of Art
Bidri Hookah Bowl with Roses
Cleveland Museum of Art
Bowl with Courtly Scene
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Husain Ali Khan Entertaining His Brothers (The Sayyid Brothers)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Calligraphy of Chaghatai Turkish Poems in Praise of Wine (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, from volume 11 of a Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Princess Smoking a Hookah (as Salabhanjika)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Sultan and Musicians
Cleveland Museum of Art
Leaf from a Kalighat album: Maid bringing a hookah to a lady (recto); Krishna weighed against precious objects(?) (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art