Collection record · Objects & craft
Powder horn
The collection record classifies this work as jade. It is dated 1600s-1700s. Recorded culture or place: India, Mughal, 17th-18th century.
Explore the object recordOBJECT RECORD
A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Powder horn
- Date
- 1600s-1700s
- Culture / origin
- India, Mughal, 17th-18th century
- Materials and technique
- Jadeite, iron inlaid with brass
- Dimensions
- Overall: 12 cm (4 3/4 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1989.351
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
Like the firearms themselves, powder horns were made as courtly accessories to be worn as objects of beauty. Most Mughal nobles also served as military commanders, and accouterments of war would be worn as part of their formal attire. For this reason, artisans used precious materials such as white jade, which in this example has been carved with leaf and petal patterns, its natural black inclusions treated as ornament. Pressing down on the simple mechanism opens the hollow inner chamber from which small amounts of gunpowder were administered into the pan of a matchlock musket.
FOLLOW THE SOURCE
Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Bequest of Mrs. Severance A. Millikin · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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