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Description: | This container could have been used for holding liquids, perhaps beer. Equally it may have stored barley flower or rtsam pa (there is a comparable container in the Newark Collection, New Jersey which is described as a 'tsampa container'). Rtsam pa is often mixed with butter tea to make a sort of dough which is the traditional food of Tibet and constitutes a powerful symbol of Tibetan identity.
The container is either Manchu or Mongolian in influence, but it may have been made in eastern Tibet where the type of ironwork it exhibits was a specialism. It bears eight identical Manchu characters which translate to good fortune and longevity. It is probable that the container was manufactured between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. When it was in use it would have been a very high status object.
The container was collected by Frederick Marshman Bailey, probably in the 1920s when he was Political Officer for Sikkim and Tibet. Bailey spoke Tibetan fluently and was a personal friend of the 13th Dali Lama.
Cylindrical pot of iron with hinged lid. Flat base raised from the rim, the walls taper inwards to the top. Reinforcing strips pass around the base, middle and rim, linked with four decorative ‘straps’. The ‘straps’ pass over the lid meeting in a dome with an iron ring. XRF analysis reveals that the straps are gilt iron. The lid is fastened on with one hinge, the opposite hasp is missing. The inside is rusty & consists of 2 sheets of curved iron. On each side is an iron ring with an iron loop (one broken) above. In the panels between the ‘straps’ is durative scroll work in silver koftgari with characters (rubbed off) in gold. The characters are in Manchu and translate to good fortune and longevity (transliteration: huturi jalafun). 13½” L (345) 9” diameter (230).
caption: General view of Whole of Horniman Museum object no nn14181
caption: Top view of Whole of Horniman Museum object no nn14181
caption: Detail view of whole of Horniman Museum object no nn14181 | Publisher: | http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ | Rights holder: | Horniman Museum and Gardens | Subjects: | Mongol containers (containers) metal solder silver Manchu gilding lids (containers) iron copper alloy | Source: | Horniman Museum | Identifier: | oai:oai.horniman.ac.uk:object-128803 | Go to resource |
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